LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

SllGlf-tf-S 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Paul and the Women 



OTHER DISCOURSES. 



d. B. Hawthorne, D.D, 

Atlanta, Ga. • 



PRICE, ONE DOLLAR. 



LOUISVILLE, KY. : 

BAPTIST BOOK CONCERN. 

1891. 

r 5 i39i 

3 3c3o w ] 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1891, by 

d. B. HAWTHORNE, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



\&f CONGRESt j 
[ASHINOTON 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 027328 



Contents 



PAGE. 

Paul and the Women 1 

Contending for the Faith 33 

Heart and Life ; or, the Philosophy 
of Moral Action. '. „ 59 

Should the State Legalize the Liquor 
Traffic?. 81 

The Ethical Features of the Tariff 
and Labor Questions Ill 



PAUL AMD THE WOMEN 



Paul ai}d tl?e U/om^ij. 



DO THE SCRIPTURES PERMIT WOMEN TO SPEAK IN 
MIXED ASSEMBLIES ? 



" Let your women keep silence in the churches : for 
it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are 
commanded to be under obedience, as cdso saith the 
law. 

"And if they will learn anything, let them ash 
their husbands at home ; for it is a shame for women 
to speak in the church. 

" What! came the word out from you? or came it 
unto you only ? 

"If any man think himself to be a prophet, or 
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I 
write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. 

" But if any man be ignorant, let him be igno- 
rant:' —I. Cor. ociv : 34, 35, 36, 37, 38. 

"Let the women learn in silence, with all subjec- 
tion. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to 
usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 

" For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 

"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman 
being deceived was in the transgression: 7 

—I. Tim. ii: 11, 12, 13, U. 



2 Paul and the Women. 

IN THE providence of God I have been 
placed in the position of spiritual ad- 
viser and teacher to this congregation of 
Christian men and women. I am called 
by the spirit of God and the suffrages of 
this people to expound to them the teach- 
ings of the sacred Scriptures. My com- 
mission requires me to instruct, to exhort, 
to comfort, and rebuke. This is what 
God demands, and what you have a right 
to expect of me. Occupying this respon- 
sible and sacred position, I claim your 
respectful and devout attention this morn- 
ing, while I attempt to set before you the 
teachings of the divine Word upon a sub- 
ject of vital importance to the order, 
peace, and welfare of the churches of 
Jesus Christ. 

The question which you have requested 
me to discuss is, i% Do the Scriptures For- 
bid Women to Speak in Mixed Assem- 
blies?" By mixed assemblies is meant 
public gatherings composed of men and 
women. 



Patjl and the Women. 3 

I feel that I owe to this congregation 
and community an explanation of my 
conduct in reference to this important 
matter. No man is more indebted to 
Christian women than I. No man in the 
gospel ministry has been more helped by 
them. They have understood me better 
than men. They have never misinter- 
preted my motives. They have always 
appreciated the difficulties and embar- 
rassments connected with my work, and 
have given me their profoundest sym- 
pathy in every conflict with error and un- 
godliness. When the whisky rings and 
their hirelings sought to destroy me, the 
Christian women of this land stood by 
me with dauntless devotion. 

Remembering these things, my sympa- 
thies have been with the women whenever 
they have met the opposition of men in 
any of their undertakings. I have almost 
assumed that in any conflict between men 
and women, the women were right. 

If through God's infinite mercy I am 
1 



4 Paul and the Women. 

ever permitted to see the face of the apos- 
tle Paul, I shall feel that I owe him an 
humble apology for having many times 
tried to believe, that in some unaccounta- 
ble way he had made a prodigious mistake, 
and inflicted upon woman a cruel injus- 
tice in forbidding her to speak in the 
church. My sympathies, my prejudices, 
and three-fourths of my reading and 
thinking have been on. the woman's side 
of this question. But the conflict is over. 
After a long and painful struggle I have 
made an unconditional surrender to con- 
science, and Paul, and the Holy Ghost. 

While my convictions of truth compel 
me to oppose the good women who differ 
with me on this subject, such is my regard 
and affection for them that I am utterly 
incapable of doing them intentional injus- 
tice or of wilfully wounding their feelings. 
I trust that enough of the old spirit of 
chivalry lingers in my heart to enable me 
to accord to them all that integrity of 
purpose which I claim for myself. 



Paul and the Women. 5 

What do the Scriptures teach upon this 
subject \ The discussion must be limited 
to this single question. Your feelings, 
the opinions of men, and the spirit of the 
nineteenth century cannot be admitted 
into this controversy. It is a subject 
upon which God has spoken, and we can- 
not array human opinion or human feeling 
against his truth without aligning ourselves 
with Kobert Ingersoll and his followers. 

A distinguished Methodist minister said 
to me a few days ago: "The Baptists 
have less government than any denomina- 
tion of Christians in the world, and yet 
they are more united than any other 
Christian people." After thanking him 
for the compliment, I told him that the 
secret of this unity was that no Baptist, 
on any question, would ever appeal from 
the Bible. When he finds a "thus saith 
the Lord 11 he will stand like Athenasius 
against the world. 

On the question now before us we find 
in this ' ' Book by inspiration given ' ' 



6 Paul and the Women. 

a thus saith the Lord. " Let the women 
keep silence in the churches, for it is not 
permitted unto them to speak. ' ' By these 
words Baptists have stood through all the 
centuries of their existence, and by them 
they will continue to stand "till time's 
last thunder shakes the world." 

It gratifies me to be able to say that 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists 
and Lutherans, are in the main just as 
loyal to this command as Baptists. 

I will state briefly some of the objec- 
tions which are urged against the most 
obvious meaning of Paul's command. 

1. It is claimed by some, not many, 
that the apostle did not intend to forbid 
women to take part in any serious dis- 
cussion, but to prohibit them from indulg- 
ing in idle chatter. It was the habit of 
women then, and it is in some places now, 
when they got together in a public meet- 
ing, to indulge in a great deal of chit 
chat or small talk. It is claimed by a 
few hard-pressed champions of a feeble 



Paul and the Women. 7 

cause, that it was this that Paul meant to 
forbid. 

In answering this view, Dr. Broadus, 
one of the greatest teachers of Kew Tes- 
tament Greek, says : ' ' The word which 
commonly means to talk, to speak, is 
sometimes used in classical Greek for 
chattering, and is sometimes applied to 
animals. But there are no clear exam- 
ples of any such use in Biblical Greek, 
and the word is applied to apostles, 
Saviour, God." 

If there is any authority for translating 
the Greek so as to make the passage 
read,. "It is not permitted unto them to 
chatter, ,? there is the same authority for 
saying that Paul chattered to the Athe- 
nians or that Christ chattered to the mul- 
titudes. 

2. Others claim that Paul's prohibition 
is limited to speaking in the church, and 
that while it would be unlawful for a 
woman to speak in a church, it is permis- 
sible in a prayer-meeting. In answer to 



8 Paul and the Women. 

this it is sufficient to say, that a meeting 
of this congregation for prayer is just 
as much a meeting of the church as a 
meeting to hear the preaching of the gos- 
pel. The word church was applied by 
the New Testament writers to meetings in 
private houses. It is not necessary for 
us to come into this building to have a 
meeting of the First Baptist Church of 
Atlanta. The same persons gathered to- 
gether in any private house of this city 
for religious worship would be the First 
Baptist Church. 

3. There are some who contend that 
Paul could not have forbidden women to 
speak upon religious subjects in meetings 
of the church, because there were proph- 
etesses in those days, and such were 
allowed to speak. 

That there were females among the 
early Christian churches who corresponded 
to those known among the Jews as proph- 
etesses is admitted ; but there is no con- 
clusive evidence to show that either 



Paul and the Women. 9 

Christian or Jewish prophetesses delivered 
their prophecies before public assemblies. 

In Corinthians, 11th chapter, Paul says: 
"Every man praying or prophesying, 
having his head covered, dishonoreth his 
head. But every woman that prayeth or 
prophesieth, having her head uncovered, 
dishonoreth her head." 

Dr. Gill says there is nothing in this 
passage which shows that women spoke 
in the meetings of the Corinthian church 
either in prayer or by way of instruction 
or exhortation, and that it means nothing 
more than that they joined the minister 
in prayer, and sung the praises of God 
with the congregation. Singing the 
prophetic psalms was sometimes called 
prophesying. 

But, if we admit that the passage does 
imply that women prayed and spoke pub- 
licly in the Corinthian church, we know 
that it does not imply that the apostle 
approved of the custom. His immediate 
object here is not to consider whether the 



10 Paul and the Women. 

practice is itself right, but to condemn the 
manner of the performance as a violation 
of all the rules of propriety and subordi- 
nation. 

On another occasion, in this very epis- 
tle, he fully condemns the practice in any 
form, and enjoins silence on the female 
members of the church in public meetings. 

That Corinthian church was a very dis- 
orderly body. It was a disgrace to the 
cause of Christ. It was full of heresy 
and wrangling and vice. Its observance 
of the Lord's Supper had degenerated 
into a scene of gluttony and drunkenness. 
Its worship was characterized by confusion, 
immodesty, and irreverence. 

The apostle is trying to correct these 
disorders. He is showing them how to 
be descent and modest and devout in their 
public meetings. He gives special atten- 
tion to the women, who seem to have 
been the greatest offenders, and concludes 
by saying : "Let your women keep silence 
in the churches. * * * It is a shame 
for women to speak in the church. ' ' 



Paul and the Women. 11 

Let us suppose that Paul did permit 
women to deliver their prophecies before 
mixed assemblies. We know that he did 
not permit them to teach on such occa- 
sions. He wrote to Timothy: "Let the 
women learn in silence in all modesty. 
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to 
usurp authority over the man, but to be 
in silence." If he permitted them to 
prophesy, but not to teach, there must 
have been some radical difference between 
the office of the prophet and that of the 
teacher. What was that difference 1 The 
prophet was a revelator. He revealed 
things concerning the past, the present, or 
the future, which were hidden from the 
world. He was simply a mouth-piece for 
God. He said nothing on his own re- 
sponsibility. He simply uttered what 
God had spoken to him. 

The function of the teacher was to ex- 
pound what had been revealed, to explain, 
to make clear to the church the meaning 
of God's revealed will. 



12 Paul and the Women. 

Now, sometimes the two offices were 
performed by the same person ; but if 
women were forbidden to teach, it follows 
that the function of the prophetess was 
limited to revealing mysteries. 

We cannot fail to see the conclusion to 
which this brings us. If Paul permitted 
women to speak in the churches of his 
day, the privilege was limited to those 
who had the gift of prophecy — those to 
whom God made known secrets that 
hitherto were hid in the great deep of His 
own mind. And if the speaking of women 
in meetings of the church was confined to 
those who had the gift of prophecy, then 
women of this day are not scripturally 
qualified to speak to the church because 
they have not the gift of prophecy. 

Do the women of this day who go into 
mixed assemblies and speak claim to be 
prophets 1 Do they claim that what they 
say is a revelation from God ? If they 
do, and their claim be true, their utter- 
ances should be written down and incor- 



Paul and the Women. 13 

porated with the other Sacred Scriptures. 
If they are indeed prophets, inspired and 
accredited as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, 
Peter, Paul and John were, then we have 
abundant material to make a new Bible 
every week. 

But are they prophets \ They cannot 
be if Paul has spoken the mind of God. 
What does he say ( In immediate con- 
nection with these words forbidding 
women to speak in the church, he says : 
" If any man think himself to be a 
prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge 
that the things which I write unto you 
are the commandments of the Lord." 

But that is just what the women- 
preachers will not acknowledge. They 
stubbornly declare that what Paul wrote 
upon this subject is not ''the command- 
ment of the Lord.*' Some of them say 
that he was a dissatisfied and crabbed old 
bachelor who was prejudiced against 
women, and imposed this restriction upon 
them only to show his dislike of them. 



14 Paul and the Women. 

Others say that they know that in this 
matter he did not write the command- 
ment of God, because his prohibitory law 
is contradicted by their own spiritual im- 
pressions and illuminations. He makes 
the acknowledgment of his inspiration the 
test of their claim not only to the gift of 
prophecy, but to any spiritual gift. They 
may sincerely believe themselves to be 
spiritual, but if they refuse to acknowledge 
his authority, he says they are not spiritual. 

Now where there is this conflict be- 
tween Paul and the women what shall I 
do? What ought I to do ? The Lord 
knows how distressful it is to me not to 
go with the women. Without their sym- 
pathy and friendship this world would be 
to me a solitude. But having Adam's 
experience before me, how foolish it 
would be for me to follow these daughters 
of Eve in violating a law as simple and 
legible as God could make it ? 

4. The position on which the advocates 
of this new doctrine aud practice rely 



Paul and the Women. 15 

more than any other, and to which they 
cling with the greatest persistence, is that 
the law which Paul lays down in his let- 
ter to the Corinthians was intended only 
for the Corinthian church — that it was 
purely a local regulation made necessary 
by a peculiar and exceptional state of 
things among the Christians of Corinth. 

This position is utterly untenable. Any 
one can see at a single glance that Paul 
did not make this law for the Corinthian 
women only. He wrote the same thing 
to Timothy that he might apply it to the 
churches in the region about Ephesus. 

In his letter to Timothy he assigns two 
reasons for not permitting women to 
teach and pray in a mixed assembly. 

1. u For Adam was first formed, then 
Eve." Xow the Corinthians were not 
the only people in the world who had 
descended from Adam and Eve. All na- 
tions, kindreds, tongues and tribes have 
descended from Adam and Eve. I trust 
that the people of Atlanta, and especially 



16 Pattl and the Women. ■ 

the members of the First Baptist Church, 
have not ceased to believe that even they 
are descendants of Adam and Eve. I 
entreat these female apostles of the new 
Gospel and new dispensation to permit us 
to hold on to that much of the old Bible. 

If we have descended from Adam and 
Eve, then Paul's law forbidding women 
to speak before mixed assemblies was not 
local, and is binding on the women of the 
First Baptist Church of Atlanta. 

" Adam was first formed." The man 
was formed out of the dust of the earth. 
The woman was formed out of the man. 
She was formed for him, for his help and 
companionship. Here lies the strength 
of the reason which the apostle gives for 
the divine law that the woman shall be in 
subjection to the man. She is to be in 
subjection to the man not so much be- 
cause she was made after the man, for she 
and the man were both created after the 
beasts of the field, but because she was 
made out of the man and for him. 



Paul and the Women. 17 

So the woman's subjection to the man 
is according to the laws of nature and 
creation. 

1^ Now, Paul says that when a woman 
goes into a church and teaches or preaches 
in the presence of men, she reverses 
God's order and violates the laws of her 
own nature and creation. "I suffer not 
a woman to teach, nor usurp authority 
over the man." Teaching implies au- 
thority over those who are taught, and as 
a woman has not, according to God's 
economy, authority over man, she is not 
permitted to stand up in a public assembly 
and teach him. God knows that millions 
of women have the ability to teach men ; 
but he does not permit them to do it, at 
least in a public way, because it has the 
appearance of authority. 

2. The second reason which Paul had 
for prohibiting women from speaking in 
mixed assemblies was "That Adam was 
not deceived : but the woman being de- 
ceived was in the transgression. ' ' If that 



18 Pattl and the Women. 

was a sufficient reason for not permitting 
women to speak in the church in Corinth, 
it is a sufficient reason for the same regu- 
lation in the First Baptist Church of 
Atlanta. The women to whom I speak 
to-day are just as much involved in the 
consequences of Eve's conduct as the 
women to whom Paul spoke and wrote. 

"Our mother took the poisonous cup 
and tainted all our blood." 

' ' Adam was not deceived. ' ' This posi- 
tive assertion is to be taken without any 
limitations or qualifications. Adam was 
not deceived at all. He was not deceived 
by the serpent with whom he had not 
talked, nor was he deceived by his wife. 
He knew what he was doing. He knew 
what would be the consequences of eating 
the forbidden fruit. He understood God's 
law. He knew that the violation of it 
would bring death to him, to Eve, and 
all their countless posterity. He ate be- 
cause his wife had eaten it and become 
mortal, and he loved her so well that he 



Paul and the Women. 19 

would rather die with her than be left 
alone in the world. 

Inasmuch as he sinned wilfully, and 
against light and knowledge, without any 
deception, his sin was greater than hers 
and his punishment more severe. 

But the woman was deceived. She 
really thought the serpent spoke the truth, 
and that she and her husband should not 
die if they ate of the fruit. 

"And the serpent said unto the woman, 
ye shall not die : for God doth know that 
in the day that ye eat thereof, then your 
eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as 
gods, knowing good and evil." That 
was what caught the dear woman. She 
wanted to know as much as God, so that 
she might be independent of him. That 
was what caught her, and there she has 
shown her weakness ever since. She 
wants to know too much. She is restive 
under a sense of her inferiority to any 
one. Out of this natural weakness grows, 
her insubordination to Paul. 



20 Paul and the Women. 

She was caught not only by what she 
heard, but by what she saw. "And 
when the woman saw that the tree was 
good, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 
and a tree to be desired to make one 
wise, she took the fruit thereof and did 
eat." 

When a woman looks upon a thing and 
is pleased with it, charmed by it, she be- 
lieves it to be right, no matter what the 
authorities say about it. Bear with me 
gentle sisters while I suggest some of the 
natural infirmities of your sex. The in- 
firmities of your brothers are much more 
serious. 

In these latter days, when, according 
to prophecy, all manner of strange things 
must occur, it has appeared unto some 
women that it would be pleasant and 
beautiful for them to step out of their 
divinely appointed sphere, and do some 
of the things which God has committed 
solely to the hands of men. Some invisi- 
ble artist has set before their mind's eye 



Paul axd the Womeit. 21 

pictures of women in the pulpit, women 
on the rostrum, women at the ballot-box. 
women on the judge's bench, and women 
in the halls of congress. 

These pictures have charmed them, be- 
witched them, and thus deceived, they 
have reached the conclusion that the 
Bible and God's order need amendment : 
and one of the amendments which they 
propose is. to strike out from the Divine 
Book Paul's words forbidding a woman 
to speak in the church. 

Paul bases this law upon the fact that 
the man was not deceived but the woman 
was deceived. Well, what has that to do 
with a woman's preaching \ It has a 
great deal to do with it. Basing his pro- 
hibitory law upon the fact that she was 
deceived, he means that a creature who 
can be made to believe that a law signifies 
something radically different from its 
obvious meaning, or that it is wise and 
good in some things to disobey the Al- 
mighty, cannot be safely intrusted with 
the office of the Christian ministrv. 



22 Pattl and the Women. 

The danger is that she will misconstrue 
God's revealed will, or set it aside alto- 
gether where it does not harmonize with 
her feelings and ambitions. It was one 
of the old Rabbinnical sayings, ' ' Burn 
the Book of Law rather than put it into 
the hands of a woman." 

There were three parties concerned in 
the first transgression — the Serpent, Adam, 
and Eve. They were all punished, but 
not in the same way, nor in the same 
degree. 

God said unto the serpent, "Because 
thou hast done this, thou art cursed. * * 
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust 
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life ; and 
I will put enmity between thee and the 
woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed ; it shall bruise thy head and thou 
shalt bruise his heel." 

The curse that God put upon the ser- 
pent in the garden of Eden is upon him 
to-day, and will continue with him to the 
end of time. 



Paul and the Women. 23 

"Upon thy belly thou shalt go." For 
six thousand years that has been his only 
method of locomotion, and he can never 
go in any other way. 

The enmity which God put between the 
serpent and man in the garden lives to 
this day, and will live unto the end of the 
world. The serpent hates man, and it is 
a human instinct everywhere to hate and 
to war against the serpent. 

The perpetuation of this curse upon the 
serpent is one of God's living witnesses 
to the fall of man. 

God said to Adam, "Because thou hast 
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and 
hast eaten of the fruit of the tree of which 
I commanded thee saying, c Thou shalt not 
eat of it ' ; cursed is the ground for thy 
sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the 
days of thy life ; thorns and thistles shall 
it bring forth to thee. * * * In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. ' ' 

That was God's curse upon man. It 
has never been removed. It remains 



24 Paul and the Women. 

with him to remind him that his first 
parents fell from a state of innocence. 

God said nnto the woman, "I will 
greatly multiply thy sorrow, and thy con- 
ception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth 
children ; and thy desire shall be to thy 
husband, and he shall rule over thee." 

That was God's punishment of woman 
for the part that she took in the first 
transgression. Has it been removed ? 
Is it not just as real to-day as it was 
thousands of years ago ? It remains, and 
will remain till the end of time, to remind 
woman how the devil beguiled her and 
robbed her of her innocence. 

Now Paul says that his law forbidding 
women publicly to teach men, is based 
upon the sentence which God pronounced 
against woman in the garden. Has that 
sentence been revoked ? I understand 
that some of our female evangelists and 
apostles say that it has been revoked. If 
it has been annulled, who did it, and 
when and where was it done? 



Paul and the Women. 25 

The curse upon the serpent remains. 
The curse upon man continues. Why 
should woman's curse be removed I 

What evidence have we that the disa- 
bilities imposed upon her in Eden have 
been cancelled \ The Bible contains no 
such doctrine. Jesus Christ and his 
apostles did not teach it. Woman's sor- 
row has not been removed, and the law 
putting her in subjection to man has 
never been repealed. 

Under the old Jewish dispensation 
there were no female priests, and women 
were not allowed to speak in the syna- 
gogue in any capacity. Christ did not 
interfere with this regulation. In organ- 
izing his own dispensation he said noth- 
ing, and he did nothing to warrant a de- 
parture from the Jewish doctrines and 
practices in reference to women. He 
chose twelve apostles. There was not a 
woman among them. Among the seventy 
whom he commissioned to preach there 
was not a woman. 



26 Paul and the Women. 

Brethren, do you appeal from the au- 
thority of this divine book ? If you do not 
the question is settled, and the uniform 
practice of the churches from the apostles 
till now must stand. 

It is due to the Christian women of the 
nineteenth century to say that only a few 
of them comparatively, have joined this 
rebellion against God's order. The great 
mass of them are content to remain in the 
sphere prescribed for them by the pre- 
cepts of the Bible and the laws of their 
own nature. 

In the field of Christian activity there 
are tasks for woman that are great enough 
to tax her utmost capacity, and high 
enough to satisfy every lawful aspiration 
of her soul. Within the great circle of 
her own sex she is permitted to teach, 
admonish and exhort to her heart's con- 
tent. More than half the members of our 
Sunday Schools are females. Here and 
in the homes of the people and in religious 
meetings composed of females, she may 



Paul and the Women. 27 

do her share of the work which God has 
committed to his church. 

I have always had some sympathy with 
Adam, because I know the bewitching 
power of female eloquence. It requires 
a desperate struggle of the will to over- 
come it. Women are naturally so much 
better than men, so much gentler and 
kinder and sweeter, that men are apt to 
think it a virtue to yield to them even 
when they know them to be in error. 

But he is woman's best friend who 
dares to oppose her in a wrong course. 
He is most loyal to woman's welfare, hap- 
piness and honor, who is most persistent 
and determined in his efforts to deter her 
from those undertakings that are incom- 
patible with the laws of her being. 

Woman, self-willed, contentious, arro- 
gant, noisy, combative, is a hideous mon- 
strosity. There is nothing on the earth 
or under the earth that has less attraction 
for a right-minded, true-hearted manly- 
man. But woman clothed with purity, 



28 Paul and the Women. 

modesty, humility, a gracious temper and 
a calm spirit; woman cultured in mind 
and heart, and lovingly and loyally mov- 
ing in her divinely appointed orbit, is ex- 
alted to her highest estate, and in that 
estate is man's angel, a wayside sacra- 
ment, a handwriting of God, a window 
opening towards a world of cherubim. 

Whence comes this new craze? Whence 
comes this challenge of apostolic inspira- 
tion and authority ? Whence comes this 
clamor for the transmutation of woman ? 
Whence comes this new slogan, "Down 
with Paul and up with woman ? ' ' Whence 
comes the cry that calls woman to the 
pulpit, the rostrum, the political caucus, 
the ballot-box, and the legislative hall ? 
It comes from the same region where 
every ism that has cursed the country for 
the last century had its birth. It comes 
from a section which applauded Theodore 
Parker for saying, ' ' If Jesus Christ did 
teach the doctrine of eternal punishment 
I do not believe it." It comes from a 



Paul and the Women. 29 

community so tolerant of heresy that a 
man can be elected to a chair of theology 
in a college once distinguished for its 
orthodoxy, who says there are three ways 
to God and heaven — the way of the 
church, the way of the Bible and the way 
of reason — and that a man is perfectly 
safe in choosing any one of them. It 
comes from the birthplace of the New 
Theology, whose liberality is only another 
name for infidelity. I confess that I 
would be less suspicious of it if it had 
first seen the light on a soil less prolific 
of evil. 

From the birth of the Republic to the 
present day this sunny Southland has 
been singularly free from that latitudinar- 
ianism in religious belief, and that irrev- 
erent spirit towards God's word, which 
have been the blight and mildew of other 
sections. There has been nothing in our 
Southern soil and atmosphere to give nu- 
triment to these noxious weeds. Let us 
abide in this spirit of loyalty to Gocl and 



30 Paul and the Women. 

his truth. Let us present to these pro- 
pagandists of a diluted and perverted 
Christianity an unbroken front, and look- 
ing calmly and trustfully to Him who 
giveth us the victory, stand with the 
deathless devotion of martyrs by the old 
flag of the old faith. 

It has been my fear of the sources 
from which these mischievous innovations 
come, that has made me for five years a 
persistent advocate for the creation of a 
Southern Baptist literature for Southern 
Baptist Sunday Schools. Such a litera- 
ture would do much to keep the South 
"solid " for all time to come. The South 
needs to be solid ; solid, not for section- 
alism but against it ; solid for the Union 
our fathers framed ; solid for good gov- 
ernment ; solid against class legislation ; 
solid against laws that are golden girdles 
for the rich and galling shackles for the 
poor ; solid for peace and fraternity on 
the basis of mutual respect and confidence, 
and equal protection and freedom ; but 
above all solid against looseness of relig- 



Paul and the Women. 31 

ions belief and practice ; solid against 
every appeal from God's book to the 
tribunal of human reason or hnman con- 
sciousness ; solid for a living ministry of 
men whose lips and lives are pure, and 
who will ;i know nothing among men but 
Christ and him crucified " ; solid for God's 
order in the church and the whole social 
economy ; solid against the folly and sin 
of robbing woman of her native modesty, 
humility, loveliness and dignity, by thrust- 
ing her out of her native sphere into un- 
natural relations, and clothing her with 
functions which she was not born to wear : 
in a word, solid for God and against 
everything that is false, and wrong and 
hurtful to man. Heaven grant that my 
life may be lengthened to see the time 
when not only the South, but the Xorth, 
the East, and the West, all this bounteous 
birth-land of the free, shall have no creed 
but the Bible, and no Saviour but Christ, 
and when this great people shall conse- 
crate their -magnificent resources to the 
world's redemption. 



CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH 



{OT)t<ZT)d\T)% for tl?<? paitl?, 



''Ye should earnestly contend Tor the Faith once 
delivered to the saints."— Jude i: 3. 

THE faith for which Christians are ex- 
horted to contend is the whole system 
of God's revealed truth. It is everything 
that God spoke to the World, through 
His Son, Jesus Christ, and through patri- 
archs, prophets and apostles. The Bible 
is the Christian's faith. This book con- 
tains all the religious truth which God 
has revealed to man. It contains all the 
religious truth that man needs in the 
present life — all that can be of real help 
to him in his earthly toils and conflicts. 

It was ' ' delivered to the saints " — to 
all saints in all ages. " Saints " is one 
of the many names which God has given 
3 (33) 



34 Contending for the Faith. 

to his people. Every regenerate person, 
every Christian, is a saint. Sainthood is 
not limited to those who have been can- 
nonized by the church. It belongs .to 
every being on God's footstool who loves 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Greek word here translated "de- 
livered " means committed, entrusted to, 
surrendered for safe-keeping. God has 
committed his revealed will to his people, 
and it is their sacred mission to keep it 
intact, and to the end of time. 

This "faith" — the revealed will of 
God — was ' ' once delivered unto the 
saints. " That means that it was delivered 
but once. The revelation that God made 
through His Son, and through his prophets 
and apostles, was never repeated. It was 
made once for all. That revelation was 
complete. When the last of the apostles 
fell asleep, revelation ceased. Since then, 
men have been quickened and enlightened 
by the Spirit of God for the study of 
God's word, but they have received no 



Contending for the Faith. 35 

new reveJaiion. The man who taketh 
from, or addeth to the words of this book, 
is a deceiver and a blasphemer, and will 
be punished with God's everlasting dis- 
pleasure. 

To " take from " God's word is the sin 
of the infidel — the man to whom nothing- 
is sacred. To "add to" it is the sin of the 
presumptuous man, who assumes that he 
can supplement the wisdom of God's 
prophets and apostles. I cannot say 
whether the former or the latter is the 
greater sinner. God abhors both, and 
will consume both with His burning in- 
dignation. 

The apostle says that we "should earn- 
estly contend for the faith once delivered 
to the saints." We should contend for it 
by extending the knowledge of it. and by 
making converts to it. We should con- 
tend for it by bravely defending it when 
it is assailed. 

This divine requirement does not war- 
rant us in resorting to violence and perse- 



36 Contending foe the Faith. 

cution. The weapons of our warfare are 
not carnal, and the man who would in- 
voke the aid of civil government in ex- 
tending the gospel is no friend to Christ. 

The persecution of the Jews by the 
Russian goverment is the foulest blot 
upon the civilization of the Nineteenth 
Century. The people who practice such 
cruelties in the name of Christianity are 
as remote from Christ as the followers of 
Tom Paine and Robert Ingersoll. 

It is rumored that our government is 
seeking an alliance with Russia. God 
forbid that any emergency should ever 
arise to make it necessary for the people 
of "this birthland of the free" to con- 
federate with a nation whose spirit is not 
only unchristian, but barbaric and inhu- 
man. Alliance with such a power for 
any purpose would be a disgrace from 
which this country could never recover. 
Of all the abominations born of human 
depravity, religious persecution is the 
most satanic and hateful. 



Contending for the Faith. 37 

That most adulterous of all connections, 
the union of Church and State, had its 
origin in the false idea that Christianity 
needs the support of temporal authority 
and power. Christ forever repudiated 
that mischievous heresy when he said, 
"My kingdom is not of this world." 

All that Christianity needs, and all that 
true Christianity asks of civil government, 
is protection. It asks the civil power to 
guarantee to all men the privilege of 
obeying their consciences in all matters 
pertaining to religion. The sect, or 
church, which asks for governmental 
patronage is anti-Christ. Christianity 
does not need the patronage of govern- 
ment, and it cannot accept it, without 
confessing to an inherent weakness, and 
without strengthening the cause of infi- 
delity. 

"The faith once delivered to the saints" 
has not been kept by State Churches. 
State Churches have corrupted it, and per- 
verted it to unholy purposes. State 



38 Contending for the Faith. 

Churches are responsible for nine-tenths 
of the infidelity in the world to-day. 

' ' The faith once delivered to the saints" 
has been kept by those communities of 
God's people, who in all ages, have pro- 
tested against any organic connection 
between Church and State, and contended 
for absolute religious freedom. 

I shall never cease to thank God for 
putting me into the ministry of a denomi- 
nation of Christians, which, through all 
the centuries of its existence, has stood 
as immovable as the eternal hills in its 
opposition to any State interference with 
religious belief and worship. Every im- 
partial reader of history will admit that 
the people to whom John Bunyan, John 
Clark and Roger Williams belonged, have 
done more for true religious liberty than 
any other people. 

Ours is the only country in the world 
that has ever tried the experiment of 
religious liberty. No other country has 
ever advanced beyond the policy of toler- 



Contending- for the Faith. 39 

ation. Wherever there is State patronage 
of religion, in any form, there can be 
nothing more than toleration. 

I have said that ours is the only coun- 
try that has tried the experiment of re- 
ligious liberty, but the truth is that the 
religious liberty of our country is but 
little more than complete toleration. So 
long as our government exempts church 
property from taxation, and appoints 
chaplins to Congress and to the Army 
and Xavy. we cannot have absolute 
religious liberty. I am surprised that the 
State of Georgia holds to this inherited 
relic of British oppression. 

To take money out of the public treasury 
to pay men to open the sessions of the 
Legislature with prayer is a violation of 
our most fundamental idea of religious 
freedom. ATen who do not believe in the 
Christian religion are thus compelled to 
support it. 

It will be a blessed day for Christianity 
when the last vestige of State religion is 



40 Contending foe the Faith. 

obliterated from the nations of the earth. 
When that day comes infidelity will be 
deprived of its most destructive weapon, 
and the churches of Jesus Christ will be 
a hundred-fold more spiritual, conse- 
crated, potential and successful than they 
have ever been. 

But while it is our duty to contend for 
the utmost liberty of conscience in re- 
ligious belief and practice, it is equally 
our duty to " contend earnestly for the 
faith once delivered to the saints." 

We can contend for God's revealed 
truth, and for every jot and tittle of it, 
without violating the rights of conscience. 

The man who opposes doctrinal preach- 
ing opposes one of the plainest and most 
imperative requirements of God's word. 
The minister of Jesus Christ who declines 
to defend the Bible against the assaults 
of current infidelity is either ignorant of 
his duty or shamefully lacking in fealty 
to his high and holy commission. 



Contending for the Faith. 41 
i 

Paul's ministry was a contention from 
beginning to end. He contended for the 
great doctrines of the Gospel, and boldly 
asserted its authority over men of every 
nation, kindred, tongue and tribe. His 
discussion of the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion is one of the sublimest specimens of 
argumentation to be found in any litera- 
ture, ancient or modern. It is what the 
late Dr. Thornwell would have called 
u logic on fire." 

The ministry of Christ was a conten- 
tion for God's truth. He contended with 
Scribes and Pharisees for the true mean- 
ing of what Moses and the prophets had 
written. 

A church that does not appreciate the 
importance of keeping the faith as it was 
delivered, and that makes no issue with 
false teachers, is a church without power, 
and without God ward aspiration. Such a 
church is contemptibly weak. Amoug the 
forces which are moving the world onward 
and upward it is an imperceptible factor. 



42 Contending for the Faith. 

This country has produced no grander 
spectacle within the last quarter of a cen- 
tury than the recent meeting of the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church, when the sanctified learning of 
that magnificent body analyzed, pulverized, 
and almost annihilated the God-dishonor- 
ing and soul-destroying heresies of Dr. 
Briggs and his Unitarian allies. There 
was achieved a victory which filled God's 
armies on the earth and above the earth 
with ecstatic joy, and smote with conster- 
nation and terror every black-bannered 
legion of infidelity under the sun. 

Let us glance at a few specimens of 
the false teachings introduced into our 
churches by the advocates of the "New 
Theology." Dr. Briggs is a typical 
apostle of that school, and Dr. Parkhurst 
is his most devoted follower and ardent 
defender. 

Dr. Briggs says, "I shall venture to 
affirm that, so far as I can see, there are 
errors in the Scriptures which no man has 



Contending for the Faith. 43 

been able to explain away." Dr. Park- 
hurst stands by this affirmation, and says 
that he is prepared to sustain it with the 
most incontestable proof. When the 
proof is demanded he comes up with this 
momentous statement, which he claims is 
unanswerable and overwhelming: "In 
Leviticus xi : 5, Moses says that conies 
chew the cud." He claims that in this 
statement Moses committed an error, be- 
cause naturalists tell us that conies do not 
" chew the cud." 

We are certainly indebted to Dr. Park- 
hurst for having greatly abreviated and 
simplified the issue. According to his 
view, it is unreasonable and absurd to 
claim infallibility for the Bible, unless it 
can be proven that conies chew the cud. 
All at once that little animal of the East 
is elevated into an importance which be- 
longs to no other quadruped. The fate 
of this old Book, which has done more 
for the world than all other books, de- 
pends upon what goes on in the mouth of 



44 Contending for the Faith. 

the coney. If he chews the cud the Bible 
is safe, but if he does not the Book is 
doomed and must sink to a level with all 
else that is merely human. The result of 
Dr. Parkhurst's deliverance on this sub- 
ject will be an unprecedented activity in 
the coney market. Every man who 
realizes the importance of the great ques- 
tion will want to see a coney and look 
into his mouth. Coney-hunters will make 
their fortunes in a day. And then Armour 
or Hutchinson will probably make a 
' ' corner ' ' in the market, and the price 
will be so advanced that only the rich can 
afford the luxury of owning a coney. 

Let us see if Moses did make the dis- 
astrous mistake with which he is charged. 
In showing the children of Israel how to 
distinguish between clean and unclean 
animals, he tells them that both the hare 
and the coney are unclean, because they 
"chew the cud," but do not "divide the 
hoof." The distinction between ruminat- 
ing and non-ruminating animals was not 



Contending for the Faith. 45 

known in that day, and Moses used the 
expression, "chew the cud," as the peo- 
ple of the East understood it. Conies 
and hares, like cows and sheep, when 
they stop eating, lie down and make the 
same motion with their jaws that they 
make in eating. They have a constant 
habit of grinding and chewing. The 
Hebrews called this motion ' ' chewing the 
cud." That was the universal name for 
it then, and it is the universal name for it 
in the East to-day. The scientific name 
for it was unknown, and therefore, Moses, 
to make himself intelligible, had to use a 
non-scientific expression. 

In interpreting the Bible, we must take 
words exactly in the sense they were used 
when the Bible was written. The Bible 
speaks of the sun "rising" and "set- 
ting." We understand very clearly what 
is meant by these terms. We use them 
ourselves. The most learned scientist on 
the globe does not hesitate to say that 
"the sun rises and sets." But such 



46 Contending for the Faith. 

language is not scientific, because, as a 
matter of fact, the sun does not rise and 
set. It is no higher at noon than it is at 
6 a. m. or at 6 p. m. It is the daily revo- 
lution of the earth that makes the sun 
appear to rise and set. 

Alas for Dr. Briggs and Dr. Park- 
hurst if they can make no better showing 
for their unrighteous cause than the evi- 
dence furnished by the conies. 

Dr. Briggs has discovered that Chris- 
tians are not pure and sinless even after 
death, and that there is an eternally pro- 
gressive sanctification. Where did he 
make that discovery ? Surely not in the 
Bible. If he did not get it from some of 
these latter day peripatetics who c 'see Jesus 
in the moon," it is purely a creation of 
his own brain. The multitude of the re- 
deemed which John saw, had "washed 
their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb." If there is one 
feature of the future state of God's peo- 
ple that the Bible makes clearer than 
another, it is its absolute sinlessness. 



Contending for the Faith. 47 

Dr. Briggs thinks there are three ways 
to God and heaven — the Bible way, the 
Church way, and the way of Keason. I 
am very happy to know that he is wise 
enough to recognize the Bible way. It is 
very consoling to me to be assured that 
the Bible path, which my ignorance com- 
pels me to choose, though very inferior 
to the one chosen by him, Brother Park- 
hurst, and their fellow-rationalists, will 
lead me to the "better country." 

But if the Bible teaches us the way to 
God and heaven, there cannot be another 
way. Here we read, "I am the wcuy, the 
truth, and the Life. No man cometh to 
the Father but by me. " "No man 
knoweth the Father but the Son, and he 
to whom the Son hath revealed Him." 
' ' Except a man be born again he cannot 
see the Kingdom of God. " " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 
be saved. " ' ' He that believeth not shall 
be damned." "He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life." "He that 



48 Contending for the Faith. 

believeth not the Son shall not see life, 
but the wrath of God abideth on him." 

This is the Bible way, and if it be true, 
there cannot be another way. 

Now, plain common-sense people will 
reason about the matter in this way : "If 
men may find God without a revelation, 
why did God make one? If men may 
escape the just reward of their sins with- 
out a Kedeemer, why did Jesus Christ 
come into the world to seek and to save 
that which was lost ? If men may be 
saved without atonement, why did Christ 
' ' bear our sins in his own body on the 
tree?" I say this is the reasoning of 
people of plain common sense ; and, after 
all, the conservatism which is to save the 
world from the blight and mildew of 
infidelity is in the brain and heart of 
plain common-sense people. 

Some persons seem to think that the 
Presbyterians have acted very unwisely 
in smiting Dr. Briggs. They think that 
he is too important a man to be cut off 



Contending foe the Faith. -±9 

merely for heresy. They remind me of 
an incident that was related by some 
speaker in the trial of Dr. Briggs' case : 
A dog, supposed to be worth five thou- 
sand dollars, had seized a distinguished 
visitor at a bench-show by the leg. and 
was tearing his flesh into shreds. The 
owner of the vicious animal ran up and 
stood before the wailing sufferer, exclaim- 
ing. --Oh. sir, don't hurt that dog. He 
is worth a thousand common dogs." 
These people who depreciate the action of 
the Presbyterian Assembly seem to care 
very little for God's bleeding cause, but 
they are profoundly concerned for the 
safety of Dr. Briggs. 

There is a vast deal of heresy just at 
this time in regard to the visible church 
of Jesus Christ. The most mischievous 
ideas are afloat in regard to the functions 
of the church, and the scope of its work. 
I agree with a distinguished writer in one 
of our religious periodicals, who says : 
"The church is the one and only organi- 
4 



50 Contending for the Faith. 

zation of divine appointment for instruc- 
tion, devotion and service." God has 
committed this work to the Church, and 
to the church alone. 

There is nothing that needs to be done 
for the evangelization of the world and 
the edification and development of be- 
lievers that cannot be done by the local 
churches, individually or collectively, 
through their chosen representatives. 

God has made a distinction between 
the young and the old, but it does not 
follow, therefore, that the young and the 
old cannot live together, and work together 
and be happy together in the same home, 
the same society and church. "If the 
Lord Jesus and his inspired apostles did 
recognize a difference between the young 
and the old, they did not teach, either by 
precept or example, that that difference 
was of such a nature as to make it neces- 
sary, or desirable, for them to have each 
a separate organization for either devotion 
or service. May it not be that this very 



Contending foe the Faith. 51 

difference between the young and the old 
presents the very strongest reason for the 
course of Jesus and his apostles in estab- 
lishing the one organization for both 
classes. They are mutually dependent. 
Youth needs to be helped by the gravity 
and experience of age, and age needs to 
be helped by the strength and bouyancy 
of youth. " 

But in these days of religious deflec- 
tions, novelties, and isms, the idea has 
taken hold on many of our young people, 
that the church is an organization for them 
to belong to, but not to work in. They 
are under the delusion that there is noth- 
ing in the church proper for the young to 
do, and therefore must get out into some 
external organization to make themselves 
useful to the cause of Christ. 

A Philadelphia publishing house has 
undertaken to organize the Baptist young 
people of this country into a National 
Convention — a convention having no 
organic connection with Baptist churches, 



52 Contending foe the Faith. 

and in which the young are to be indoc- 
trinated, and taught to work independently 
of the churches. The movement is hereti- 
cal and mischievous to the very core. 
One of the conditions of membership in 
that convention is that a weekly paper 
issued by that Philadelphia publishing 
house must be accepted as the organ of 
the convention. Thus a purely external 
organization presumes to exercise an 
authority, and to do a work, which God 
has committed solely to the churches. 

It is very gratifying to know that our 
young people in the Southern States 
recognize the unscripturalness of this 
movement, and that only a few of them, 
comparatively will give countenance to it. 

I do not object to organizations of 
young people for Christian work, if they 
will keep their organizations within the 
church, and subject them to the authority 
and supervision of the church. Let us 
get back to the teachings of this Book 
and recognize the unmistakable truth, 



Contending foe the Faith. 53 

that the only divine organization in this 
world is the Church of Christ, and that it 
is God's plan and purpose to reach and 
save the world through the agency of the 
church. The multiplication of organiza- 
tions to do what God has required his 
church to perform, is insubordination to 
the divine will, and will breed confusion 
and disaster. We are loyal to God and 
His truth, just to the extent that we love 
and exalt the church of God above all 
human institutions. 

In entering to-day on the eighth year 
of my ministry in Atlanta, it fills me 
with gratitude and joy to be able to say 
that the dear old church which I am per- 
mitted to serve has supported me in all 
my contentions with error and unright- 
eousness. 

I rejoice that I am the servant of a peo- 
ple who believe this Bible to be the Word 
of the living God, and to whom a * * thus 
saith the Lord" is an end of controversy. 
Thev not onlv believe it to be the Word 



54 Contending foe the Faith. 

of God, but they have a common sense 
understanding of its language that cannot 
be upset or confused by the fanciful and 
far-fetched interpretations of the new 
schools of theology. I assure you that 
it gives me a mighty inspiration to be 
backed by a congregation so united and 
unflinching in its fealty to God's revealed 
truth. 

The work that has been accomplished 
through our own local church organiza- 
tion, and the increased receipts of the 
church treasury for religious objects, fur- 
nish abundant evidence that the people 
who worship here have not lost faith in 
the wisdom and efficiency of God's insti- 
tutions and methods. 

Confiding in the integrity of your pur- 
pose never to forsake the "old paths," 
and looking to God for His guidance, I 
turn with hope and cheer to the duties 
and conflicts of another year. 

Somewhere in the not very distant 
future, possibly before our next anniver- 



Contending for the Faith. 55 

sary, the summons will come to me to lay 
aside my armor and quit the field of sub- 
lunary contests. Till then it is my desire 
and purpose to stand close to the flag and 
in the thickest of the fight, so that I may 
be able to say with the greatest of all 
saints and apostles, " I have fought a good 
fight, I have kept the faith," and that I 
may hear from out the third heaven, 
opening to receive me, the voice of my 
divine Judge and Master saying : 

"Servant of God, well done ! 
Rest from thy loved employ ; 
The battle's fought, the victory's won, 
Enter thy Master's joy." 



MEART AND LIFE: 

OR, THE 

PHILOSOPHY OF MORAL ACTION 



fleart ai?d Life; or, tl?<? pijilosop!?y of 
(T\oral fietloT). 



"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are 
the issues of life.'- — Prov. iv : 23. 

f HAVE never brought before this con- 
* gregation a greater subject, or one 
more vital to the present and eternal wel- 
fare of mankind, than that presented in 
the text. If I can get out of it and into 
your minds and hearts what I see in it, 
we shall go hence as happy as if we had 
had a transfiguration experience. 

"Keep thine heart with diligence." 
Why keep the heart with diligence ? Be- 
cause "out of it are the issues of life." 
That means that your conduct will corre- 
spond to your character. Character is 
what you are in mind and heart. If you 
(59) 



60 Heart and Life ; or, the 

are good at the center of thought and 
affection you will be good all over, and if 
you are bad there you will be bad all over. 
What you see in a man's conduct is ex- 
actly what was in his heart. All we see 
that is good or evil in the social world is 
simply thought and feeling transmuted 
into conduct. Christ reiterated and put 
his own divine emphasis into the doctrine 
of our text when he said, "Ye shall 
know them by their fruits." " A good 
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, and a 
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good 
fruit." 

' ' Keep thine heart with all diligence ; 
for out of it are the issues of life." 

In these words we have an epitome of 
the whole philosophy of moral action. 

Every man is endowed by his Creator 
with a will, and that will is free. How 
do we know that it is free? We know it 
by the testimony of our consciences. If 
I will to do something which is good and 
pure my conscience approves me, but if I 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 61 

do something which is evil and vile, it 
condemns me. If the will were not free, 
if man's conduct is the result of irresisti- 
ble force from without, conscience would 
neither approve nor condemn. 

We know that the will is free, because 
the universal sentiment of mankind is, and 
always has been, that men are responsible 
for their conduct and should be punished 
when they do wrong. 

I am aware of the fact that in these 
latter days there has arisen a new theory 
of mental and moral action — a theory 
which denies the freedom of the will. I 
am not surprised at it, for the same 
human depravity which tries to put God 
out of the universe will endeavor to over- 
throw the doctrine of human accounta- 
bility. 

I agree with my friend and brother, 
Dr. Lee, that science and philosophy are 
in perfect harmony with the Christian re- 
ligion ; but there is a vast deal that is 
called science and philosophy which is of 



62 Heart and Life ; or, the 

the devil and strikes at every basal prin- 
ciple of Christianity. 

One of the most hideous and hurtful 
creations of this false philosophy is the 
"physico-chemical theory" of mental 
action. 

According to this theory all mental and 
moral phenomena are reducible to physi- 
cal laws, and are as necessary and inevi- 
table as the working of similar laws in 
the outward world. 

The meaning of this is that it is simply 
impossible for any man to be different 
mentally and morally from what he is. 
Nero could not have been less than the 
fiend that he was because of the brain that 
was in him, and the circumstances which 
surrounded his life. As his brain and 
nervous system were the only medium of 
his mental actions, his every thought and 
feeling was the result of a strictly physi- 
cal process, over which he had no centrol, 
and for which he was not responsible. 

According to this theory, any man who 
happens to be born with a brain like that 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 63 

■which was lodged in the skull of Rube 
Burrows, and who grows up in a country 
like that in which he was reared, is com- 
pelled to be a thief, a robber, and a mur- 
derer. 

According to this theory, if you were 
born with a certain kind of brain, and so 
much of it lies above and so much below 
a certain line, and you grow up with a 
certain environment, you will inevitably 
become a gambler. 

According to this theory, every man's 
thoughts and feelings and character are 
the products only of physical causes. He 
is intellectually and morally just what 
physical laws compel him to be. 

Do you believe that \ X o, you do not. 
and you cannot believe it. If you be- 
lieved it. you would not blame your child 
for disobedience, you would not blame 
the thief who steals your money, nor the 
incendiary who sets fire to your house, 
nor the bandit who murders your neigh- 
bor. 



64 Heart and Life ; or, the 

You cannot get rid of the instinct which 
makes you approve certain actions of men 
and condemn others. You do not have 
to reason yourself up to the point where 
you can say that the honest and peaceable 
man should be commended, and the thief 
and assassin should be condemned and 
punished. You say it without waiting to 
reason or reflect — instinctively you say it. 

You do not blame Yesuvius for its 
noisy and destructive wrath. You do not 
blame it for the streams of lava which 
overflowed and buried the cities of Pom- 
peii and Herculaneum. 

You do not blame the Alpine avalanche 
for its destruction of human habitations 
and human lives. 

You do not blame the cyclone which 
sweeps over the land prostrating forests, 
lifting up the dwellings and the bodies of 
men into the air, and leaving death and 
desolation in its track. 

But do you feel thus towards the human 
tyrants and monsters whose feet have 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 65 

slipped in gore, who have made torches 
of human bodies to illumine their gar- 
dens, and amused themselves by spread- 
ing terror, mourning and lamentation 
throughout nations and continents? No, 
you feel that such incarnate fiends deserve 
all the indignation and reprobation which 
earth and heaven can bestow upon them. 

You hold men responsible for their 
conduct, because you know by your own 
experience that the human will is free, 
and that man has the power to choose be- 
tween good and evil. 

I say that we are free moral agents and 
are therefore responsible for our words 
and deeds. But let us see where the 
freedom lies, and upon what our respon- 
sibility rests. 

It cannot be denied that we have done 
things which at the moment could not 
have been avoided. We will suppose 
that yesterday you were debating with 
your neighbor some political question. 
Unable to cope with him in argument you 
5 



66 Heart and Life ; or, the 

got mad and called him a liar and thief. 
At the time you uttered these unjust and 
spiteful epithets you were not free. You 
said what your feelings at the moment 
forced you to say. 

But to-day, as you review your con- 
duct, you do not feel that you are blame- 
less. Notwithstanding the fact that your 
anger deprived you of your freedom, and 
you were compelled to say what you 
would not say in your sober moments, you 
reproach and condemn yourself for having 
called your neighbor a liar and a thief. 

Suppose a different case. Years ago 
you formed the habit of drinking intoxi- 
cating beverages. That habit has grown 
upon you until you have become a drunk- 
ard. Last night you went home maddened 
by the poison in your blood and brain and 
drove your wife and children into the 
streets. 

You know very well that you were not 
free when you did that wicked and cruel 
thing. You were a slave doing what 
your vile passion compelled you to do. 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 67 

And yet you do not feel that you are 
innocent. Now that you are sober your 
conscience condemns you. You are loaded 
with a sense of your baseness. You feel 
that you deserve the contempt of all 
decent people and a month's hard labor 
with the chain-gang. 

No man is free who is weaker than the 
temptation which confronts him. He is a 
fettered slave. And yet he condemns 
himself for yielding to temptation. 

Now the question which I want you to 
consider is, why does that man condemn 
himself % If he is a slave driven into 
vice by some raging lust within him ; if 
he has no power to resist the temptation 
which so often stands before him, why 
does he condemn himself? Because he 
knows that he might have been free, and 
that he chose not to be. 

In olden times a man born free might 
sell himself into perpetual slavery. So, 
too, may one by his own willing self- 
surrender, make himself a life long slave 
to sin and vice. 



68 Heart and Life ; ok, the 

The drunkard blames himself because 
he remembers that there was a time when 
he was free, and that in the face of solemn 
warnings and affectionate entreaties he 
chose to drink, and thus fastened upon 
himself the vile habit which ripened into 
drunkenness with all of its wretchedness 
and degradation. 

Every gambler despises himself. He 
feels as mean as a thief. He knows that 
he is out of place when he is in the pres- 
ence of honest men. His conscience 
tells him that if he were sent to prison 
and dressed in the garb of a convict, it 
would not be more than he deserves. 
That man is not free. No galley slave 
ever had less freedom. The passion for 
gambling has grown within him until he 
has become absolutely helpless in the 
presence of the temptation. Why then 
does he write such bitter things against 
himself? Why does his conscience lash 
him ? Why does he feel like a criminal ? 
Because he knows that he was once free 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 69 

and that he could have remained free, but 
chose to make himself a slave. 

Where then lies our freedom ? It lies 
in our power of attention, in our command 
of thought, in the control which we can 
establish over the real within. In other 
words, it lies in our ability to keep the 
heart with diligence. This comprises the 
whole philosophy of moral freedom and 
action. 

Keep the heart ; let nothing into it that 
is vile. When bad thoughts come and 
seek entertainment, shut the door and tell 
them to depart. Let all the guests of 
your mind be clean and lovely. Meditate 
upon subjects that will exercise your 
higher faculties, and excite your nobler 
impulses. Settle calmly and, deliberately 
in your mind the principles which should 
regulate your life, and then resolve to 
stand by them in every event of your 
earthly career. Study the oracles of 
God, invite Him to make you His taber- 
nacle ; cultivate a sense of his presence. 



70 Heart and Life ; or, the 

Do these things and the issues of your life 
will be pure and beautiful and good. 

The chief work of any good man's life 
is done in secret. When he seems to be 
the least active he is the most active. 
When he is saying and doing nothing, then 
he is deciding what to say and what to do. 

It is in his periods of retirement and 
silence that he lays the foundations of his 
success. It is then that he fixes his prin- 
ciples and gathers the forces by which he 
can overcome temptation and maintain 
his freedom. 

This is what Solomon means by keeping 
the heart. Make the source of life good 
and all the issues of it will be good. 

If, for example, you have from time to 
time reflected upon the sin of lying ; if 
you have seen its vileness and hatefulness, 
and cultivated an abhorrence of it, and 
sought God's help to keep your lips free 
from its stain, when you are tempted to 
tell a falsehood, it matters not how sud- 
den or mighty the temptation, you are 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 71 

prepared for it. The character which you 
have built in. secret will instantly assert 
itself, and smiting that temptation from 
your presence will be natural and easy. 

If in your hours of serious reflection 
you have considered the meanness and 
wickedness of fraud, and habitually sought 
God's help to keep your life free from the 
stinking pollution, you will never take 
advantage of your neighbor's ignorance 
and unload your worthless stocks upon 
him. You will never sell him brass for 
gold, paste for diamond, cotton for silk, 
or oleomargarine for butter. When the 
temptation to do these things is presented 
you will not need the councils and en- 
treaties of virtuous men, nor will you 
have any great and painful struggle. You 
will not even stop to pray over the matter. 

Upheld, fortified, and impelled by the 
energy and power of a righteous charac- 
ter, your resistance will be so spontaneous, 
and your conquest so easy that your will 
scarcely realize the presence of the tempter. 



72 Heart and Life ; or, the 

It is the neglect of this secret heart work 
that makes a man weak. If you fail to 
keep the citadel of life ; " if you give free 
scope to harmful reveries, to imaginations 
that transgress the borders of purity and 
integrity ; if you take a vulgar pleasure 
in letting your thoughts dwell upon vulgar 
things, the issues of your life will be 
vulgar and vile." 

''These reveries give birth to desires 
and affections of their own type. These 
musings light and fan a fire of their own 
baleful hue. By your inward life, thus 
ordered, your social and active life is de- 
termined." 

You are constantly saying and doing 
things which you do not approve, and 
which you did not deliberately choose or 
plan. When the mischief is done you 
say, " It was wrong, but I did it suddenly 
and inadvertently. Had there been time 
for reflection I would not have done it." 

But, sir, in nine cases out of ten you 
cannot have time to reflect. You must 
speak or act at the moment or not at all. 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 73 

It is these inadvertent words and deeds 
that are the true index to the character. 
In them you are yielding to a necessity of 
your own choice — to a necessity which is 
the offspring of your own freedom. 

The conduct of a man who has kept his 
heart with diligence will be just as pure 
and upright and noble when it is sponta- 
neous as wheu it is premeditated. 

Ask a good man to forgive you for a 
wrong which you have done him, and the 
instantaneous pardon which he grants you 
is full and complete — just as full and 
complete as if he had taken a month to 
think and pray over the matter. 

When the * good Samaritan comes sud- 
denly and unexpectedly upon a stranger 
in distress his attention to his wants is 
just as generous and Christlike as it would 
be if he had clearly foreseen his condition. 

If that scarred hero, who has breasted 
the fury of a hundred battles, and recorded 
his patriotic vows again and again with 
the blood of his own veins, were asked to 



74 Heart and Life ; ok, the 

lead his liberty-loving countrymen once 
more into a struggle for freedom, he would 
respond as promptly as the thunder fol- 
lows the lightning, and what he would 
say would be the expression of your high- 
est conception of chivalry, and of fealty 
to the country's cause. 

The spontaneities of an honest man's 
life are on the same high level of his pre- 
meditated acts. Ask him to join you in 
some fraudulent transaction, and his vir- 
tuous soul will instantly repel the insult, 
and his refusal will be as complete and 
final as if he had taken a week to consider 
the subject. 

A gentlemen was seated in his carriage 
at the Piedmont Exposition watching a 
contest between two trotting horses. He 
was approached by a stranger, who said 
to him, " I will bet you a hundred dollars 
that the gray horse wins the race." His 
prompt and indignant response was, "Sir, 
I am neither a gambler nor the son of a 
gambler." He was just as ready to meet 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 75 

that proposition, which had to be answered 
then and there, as he could have been had 
he known weeks before that it would be 
made to him. 

The fearless knight, when aroused from 
slumber by a midnight alarm does not even 
think of surrender, but is ready for a 
brave resistance. 

The man who keeps his heart with dili- 
gence is a soldier who sleeps in his armor, 
and no call to meet the enemies of his 
virtue, however sudden and unexpected, 
finds him unprepared for the conflict. 

Keeping the heart is simply character- 
building. It is putting into it the solid 
and impenetrable granite of truth and 
righteouness. 

These things being true, you see very 
clearly that the most important woi'k of a 
man's life is preparation — fitting himself 
for conflict and usefulness. The most 
essential element of duty is preparation 
for duty. 

We read this lesson in the example of 
Him whose words and deeds have done 



76 Heart and Life ; or, the 

more to illumine and uplift the world than 
all the other agencies and influences that 
have helped mankind. What was He 
doing during those thirty years of silence 
in Nazareth? Making preparation. What 
was He doing during those forty days 
which he spent in the wilderness at the 
beginning of His Messianic career ? Mak- 
ing preparation. What was he doing 
through all the still hours of the lone 
nights He spent upon the mountains ? 
Making preparation. Preparation for 
what ? For just three and a half years of 
active ministry. Was that wise? Look 
at the influence of that ministry on the 
world's character, happiness, and destiny, 
and then answer. 

The men whose utterances in the coun- 
cils of the nation have left the profoundest 
impression, and will live longest in the 
memories of their countrymen, packed 
into a few great speeches the results of 
long years of patient and careful thought, 
research and discipline. 



Philosophy of Moral Action. 77 

If I had but ten days more to serve this 
congregation I would take nine days for 
study and prayer and the tenth for preach- 
ing. 

Preparation ! Young man, that word 
is golden. Make it the motto of your 
young life. Write it in letters of gold 
upon the white folds of your banner. Let 
your deepest concern be not about doing 
but preparation for doing. 

Keep thine heart. Gather into it the 
incomparable and imperishable wealth of 
great truths, great thoughts, and great 
affections. 

Open the door and invite to the highest 
throne that adorable Being, who alone can 
make you wise unto salvation, whose in- 
dwelling will make your heart a fountain 
of blessing, the streams from which shall 
gladden the world. 

It is reported that when the tyrant Tra- 
jan commanded Ignatius to be disem- 
boweled they found Jesus Christ written 
upon his heart in characters of gold. The 



78 Heart and Life. 

story is fabulous and yet true. Christ's 
name was there, but invisible to mortal 
ken. And that was the secret of that 
great life, the issues of which have 
brightened the pathway and splendored 
the hopes of moral heroes and martyrs in 
every subsequent generation of men. 

Oh, God, help us to keep our hearts 
with diligence, that Out of them may go 
forth pure thoughts into pure words, holy 
purposes into holy deeds, and beautiful 
loves into beautiful lives. Fulfil this 
desire of our souls, that we may go to 
our graves in peace, and from that dream- 
less sleep, that calm and undisturbed 
repose beneath the sod, we may awake 
amid the living symphonies of angelic 
choirs to know the meaning of our Mas- 
ter's promise — "The pure in heart shall 
see God." 



SHOULD THE STATE 



LEGALIZE THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 



Should t\)<i Stab? Legalize tl?<? Ciquor 
SraffieP 



Delivered Before the 1890 Club, January 28, 1891. 



TX EVERY country where the supreme 
power is lodged in the people, the govern- 
ment is just what the people make it. 
Every man invested with the right of 
suffrage feels, or ought to feel, that he is 
responsible to the extent of his ballot and 
his influence for the laws enacted by the 
representatives of the people, and for the 
manner in which they are administered. 
There is another element of society in 
democratic countries which feels that it is 
in some measure responsible for the same 
things. This element includes every 
virtuous woman from the base to the apex 
of society. Every true woman feels it to 
be a duty to bring her influence to bear in 
favor of good government. 
6 (81) 



82 Should the State Legalize 

For what this government is and does, 
God Almighty will hold the people re- 
sponsible. Every man who knowingly 
gives his ballot and his influence to the 
cause of bad government will be punished 
in this world and in the next if he does not 
repent before God and endeavor by a true 
and honest life to repair, as far as possi- 
ble, the mischief he has done. 

Under moral government, responsibility 
is not something that can be so widely 
distributed as to make each man's share 
inconsiderable and trifling. If a hundred 
men band together and rob a bank, the 
responsibility is not so divided that each 
man bears just a hundredth part of the 
guilt and the penalty incurred by the 
robbery. Each one of those men is just 
as guilty before the law, and in the sight 
of God, as if he alone, had committed the 
iniquitous deed. If I have voted with a 
million of men for a law which I knew at 
the time to be iniquitous, I bear more 
than a millioneth part of the responsi- 



the Liquor Traffic? 83 

bility. I bear it all, and a just God will 
punish me accordingly. 

In these few brief statements you have 
the secret, the explanation, of a great 
movement in this democratic country in 
favor of purer and wiser legislation, with 
reference to what is almost universally 
conceded to be the most direful curse of 
the American people. 

The men and women who are in this 
movement believe that they will be held 
individually responsible to God for the 
laws which sanction, defend, and support 
the liquor curse, if they fail to exert 
themselves to the utmost of their ability 
in an effort to blot out these base-born 
and iniquity-breeding laws. 

This is the meaning of our movement. 
It is the outgrowth and expression of 
human consciences enlightened from 
above. It is an organized and divinely 
baptized crusade against organized and 
legalized inhumanity. Its aims are as 
pure as heaven ; it is inspired by convic- 
tions born of God. 



84: Should the State Legalize 

The men and women who are in this 
movement are there to remain until the 
Master calls them to their reward in 
heaven. They are too wise to be tricked 
into silence by designing demagogues, 
and they are too brave to be driven from 
the field by any threat of social ostracism, 
commercial injury, or personal violence. 

I admit that the cause of prohibition 
has among its supporters unwise and un- 
worthy men. The same is true of 
Masonry ; the same is true of Odd Fel- 
lowship ; the same is true of Christianity. 
There are men among us who will follow 
our banner for the same reason that Judas 
followed Christ, and in the hour of tempta- 
tion they will desert us for the same 
reason that Judas deserted Christ. They 
are with us but not of us. 

Prohibition has a basis of truth and 
reason that is solid, immovable, and eter- 
nal, and when honest men go into it un- 
derstandingly they go to stay, and they 
will stay in defiance of the very gates 
of hell. 



the Liquor Traffic i 85 

What is our caused What is our de- 
mand? It is that the State shall not 
legalize but prohibit the sale of alcoholic 
liquors, except for medicinal and me- 
chanical purposes. 

I wish to present in a very concise form 
a basis of reason for this demand. It 
satisfies my mind, and I am confident that 
it will satisfy any man's mind who is 
willing to see and know the truth. 

Various decisions of the highest judicial 
tribunal in our country have set at rest 
forever the question as to whether a State 
government has, or has not, the right, 
under the Federal Constitution to prohibit 
the sale of alcoholic liquors. 

No abler or purer man ever adorned 
the American Bar or Bench than Chief 
Justice Taney, of the Supreme Court of 
the United States. This great question 
came before him when the cause of pro- 
hibition was in its infancy, and when he 
could pass an opinion upon it unbiased by 
popular clamor from any quarter. Here 



S6 Should the State Legalize 

is his decision: "If any State deems the 
retail and internal traffic in ardent spirits 
injurious to its citizens, and calculated to 
produce idleness, vice and debauchery. I 
see nothing in the Constitution of the 
United States to prevent it from regulating 
or restraining the traffic, or from prohibit- 
mg it altogether if it thinks proper." 

That high tribunal has never rendered 
a decision in conflict with this doctrine, 
but has again and again reaffirmed and 
ratified it, in language which the simplest 
man among us can understand. 

It is gratifying to know that the con- 
stitutional question is settled, and that no 
one can charge us with disloyalty to the 
organic law of the Republic. The Federal 
Constitution, the supreme law of the land 
— that instrument which embodies the 
highest political wisdom known to man — 
guarantees to each State the right to leg- 
islate this accursed traffic out of existence 
within her territory. 

We have cause for congratulation also 
in the settlement of another question, 



the Liquor Traffic I 87 

upon which our people were for a long 
time divided. It is settled that the liquor 
traffic is an evil. Justice Grier says, "It 
is not necessary to array the appalling 
statistics of raiser \ r , pauperism, and crime 
which have their origin in the use of 
ardent spirits.*' Verily, it is not neces- 
sary. What every man sees with his own 
e}'es, and in his own community, is 
enough to convince him of the reality and 
enormity of the evil. 

We have reached a point where it is 
assumed in all legislation upon this sub- 
ject, that the business of selling liquor is 
an evil, and a great evil. When the leg- 
islature of Georgia enacts a law for the 
suppression of gambling in some form, it 
is assumed that gambling is an evil, that 
it is hurtful to the interests of the people 
of the State. The law-makers regard that 
as a principle which admits of no contro- 
versy. They may differ as to the methods 
of removing the evil, but if one of their 
number should take the position that 



88 Should the State Legalize 

gambling is not hurtful to the community, 
he would be laughed at as a fool, or 
or branded as a knave. 

The same is true in regard to the liquor 
traffic. All legislative bodies in our 
country assume that it is a curse. 
All discussions are now limited to 
methods of dealing with the curse. Any 
man would be looked upon both as a 
curiosity and a monstrosity who should 
come before the public and deny that 
whisky selling is an evil. From such an 
exhibition of ignorance and assininity he 
could never recover. 

The question having been settled that 
the liquor traffic is an evil, and perhaps 
the greatest evil which now afflicts society, 
it is inconsistent with the ends for which 
governments are instituted for the State 
to protect that evil. The proposition is 
incontrovertible that no government 
should protect and foster a business which 
is admitted to be a curse to society. Any 
man who should stand up among us and 



the Liquor Traffic { 89 

assert that one of the legitimate functions 
of government is to protect evil, could 
scarcely keep himself out of the insane 
asylum. The judgment of a charitable 
public would be that he was a lunatic 
whose condition required seclusion, and 
the skillful treatment of a specialist. 

Now, behold the inconsistency of the 
great Commonwealth of Georgia. Here 
is a business which every man in the 
State, from the highest official to the 
humblest private citizen, admits to be a 
curse upon the people ; and yet our statute 
books are dotted all over with laws which 
protect and support that curse. 

"What is the one and invariable duty of 
government in reference to evil i This is 
a question which every ten-year-old boy 
in your public schools can answer. He 
knows, and so does any human being who 
has any conception of government know. 
that it is the duty of the State to prevent 
evil. 

The State of Georgia is consistent with 
this fundamental idea of government when 



90 Should the State Legalize 

it forbids murder and hangs men convicted 
of murder. It is consistent with it when 
it forbids theft, and consigns to the peni- 
tentiary men convicted of theft. It is 
consistent with it when it forbids gamb- 
ling, and punishes by fine and imprison- 
ment men convicted of gambling. 

Why does it make an exception of the 
liquor traffic ? It does not say to the man 
who thirsts for human blood, "Pay me a 
few dollars and you shall have my sanction 
and authority to commit murder ?" It does 
not say to the man who is cursed with a 
passion for theft, ' ' Pay me a small sum 
and I will give you a license to go and 
steal to your heart's content. ,, But it 
does say to the drunkard-maker, society's 
worst foe, u Put a few dollars into my 
treasury and you may open a dirty dog- 
gery, and make every man in your neigh- 
borhood a drunkard and a criminal if you 
can." 

Now, what answer can our legislators 
make to this charge of inconsistency? I 



the Liquor Traffic? 91 

have pressed them for an answer. I have 
begged them to tell me how they have 
gained the consent of their consciences to 
protect an evil which it is their solemn 
duty to prevent. 

Perhaps the best answer which they make 
is this: "It does look inconsistent to 
legalize and protect an admitted evil, but 
there is some compensation for the incon- 
sistency in the fact that we regulate the 
evil and get a revenue from it." Regulate 
it! What do they mean by that? How 
do they regulate the whisky business? 
" Well, by restricting it to the fire-limits." 
The Lord only knows where Atlanta's 
fire-limits are. They are somewhere be- 
tween Edgewood and West End, but when 
there is an application for another license 
the lines become suddenly invisible and 
nobody can find them. The fire-limits 
mean one thing for the man who wants a 
permit to build a house, and quite another 
thing for a man who wants to start another 
whisky shop. As long as the liquor 



92 Should the State Legalize 

business lives in Atlanta no surveyor will 
ever be able to trace those mysterious 
lines known as the "fire-limits." 

Regulate it ! How? "Forbid the dog- 
gery men to open on Sunday, and election 
days, and make them close at ten o'clock 
in the evening." Yes, but it is an open 
secret that, in a majority of cases, such 
regulations extend only to the front doors 
of these establishments. I am reliably 
informed that men can and do get liquor 
on Sundays, election days, and after ten 
o'clock in the evening, from many of the 
bar-rooms in Atlanta. I suppose that the 
regulations are about as well enforced in 
in this city as the3^ are in any community 
of the State, but everybody knows that, 
practically, they amount almost to nothing. 

Regulate it! How? "Remove the 
blinds from the front door." Well, we 
have done that, but how much has it 
abated the evil? Any man who is de- 
graded enough to patronize one of these 
dens cannot be kept out of it by removing 



the Liquor Traffic? 93 

the blind from the front door. To every 
such hole of iniquity there is a back door 
and a place of concealment for those who 
shrink from making a public exhibition 
of their shame. 

"Then, in addition to this wholesome 
legislation, the State gets a large revenue 
from the business, with which she can 
build asylums for the afflicted, and main- 
tain the public schools." There would be 
something in that if it were not for the 
plain, stubborn, and incontrovertible fact 
that the crime and pauperism produced by 
this traffic cost the people of Georgia 
vastly more than the revenue it yields to 
the State. 

But the question which paralyzes the 
average legislator is this : If public evils 
can and should be regulated, why do you 
limit the regulation to whisky? Why 
not regulate gambling ? Why not regulate 
forgery? Why not regulate burglary? 
Why not regulate arson ? Why not regu- 
late murder? 



94 Should the State Legalize 

Why not say to the thief, "You. may 
prosecute your business of stealing men's 
watches, diamonds, pocket-books, and 
other property every day in the year, 
Sundays and election days excepted." 

Why not s&y to the burglar, " You may 
break into and rob all the houses within 
the fire-limits of every city in the State, 
it being understood that great latitude 
will be allowed you on account of the un- 
certainty of the fire limits." 

Why not say to the man who has a pas- 
sion for killing people, " You may shoot 
every man who passes your premises, 
provided your next door neighbors do 
not object, and will say that you have the 
requisite moral qualifications for the busi- 
ness? " 

It is just as easy to regulate a gambler, 
or a thief, as it is to regulate a doggery- 
keeper. Legalize gambling and regulate 
it, and I believe the men who pursue the 
business would violate the law less than 
the men who retail liquor. 



the Liquor Traffic? 95 

Legalize theft and regulate it, and the 
men who are engaged in the business will 
submit to regulation more promptly, and 
with less complaint than the saloon men. 

Long experience has demonstrated that 
no citizen of the Republic is so hard to 
regulate as the average dram- seller. His 
fertile genius has invented a hundred 
tricks by which he can defeat the whole 
regulation business. 

If it is right and wise to raise a revenue 
for the State by taxing one admitted evil, 
why not tax them all? Why not allow 
gambling and tax it? It would bring a 
big sum into the State Treasury to require 
every gambler to pay to the State ten per 
cent, of his earnings. It would bring in 
a much larger sum to require every thief 
to turn over to the State ten per cent, of 
what he steals. To increase the public 
revenue in this way would not be more at 
variance with the laws of God, and more 
hurtful to society than our present liquor- 
license system. 



96 Should the State Legalize 

To legalize any evil for the sake of 
revenue is an iniquity which every vir- 
tuous being in the universe must repro- 
bate. One of the ablest and noblest men 
in the present Georgia Legislature said in 
a recent speech before that body, ' ' The 
womb of hell is too weak to bring forth 
anything worse than the liquor-traffice." 
His phillippic would have been complete 
if he had said that out of the womb of hell 
there has never come anything worse than 
a law which makes the public school- 
system of the State of Georgia rest upon 
a foundation of dirty doggeries. My 
blood almost freezes with horror at the 
thought that our children will ever be 
told that for their educational advantages 
they are indebted to these dens of filth 
and vice. 

The duty of the State is not to protect 
evil but to prevent it. If you believe 
that doctrine to be true, you cannot be 
honest and oppose the prohibition of the 
liquor-traflic ; because you know that of 



the Liquor Traffic? 97 

all the evils which now afflict mankind it 
is the worst. 

I sometimes hear an office-seeking dema- 
gogue say: "You temperance people 
ought not to invoke the aid of government 
in your efforts to remove this evil. You 
ought to rely upon argument and moral 
suasion." We temperance people do 
rely upon argument and moral suasion. 
We do appeal to the reason and conscience, 
both of the liquor-drinker and the liquor- 
seller ; we tell them of the injuries which 
they inflict upon themselves and the com- 
munity ; we tell them of the degradation 
and shame which they incur in this life, 
and of the direful retribution which awaits 
them in the life to come. These are 
means which we have not neglected. We 
have plied them with all diligence and 
zeal. We rely upon them, but not upon 
them alone in our efforts to exterminate 
the curse. 

Much has been done in this way to stay 
the progress of the mighty evil. In this 
7 



98 Should the State Legalize. 

way we have closed many bar-rooms, de- 
terred many young men from touching 
the destroying cup, and lifted up a great 
multitude from the depths of filth and 
shame. 

But to make this great reformation 
complete, to extirpate this fearful scourge, 
we must have not only moral suasion but 
legislation. 

Let me ask these champions of the 
moral suasion method a question or two. 
Would you advise the people of Georgia 
to confine themselves to moral suasion in 
their efforts to get rid of the curse of 
gambling? What would be the condition 
of society to-day if there was no legisla- 
tion upon this subject? Would it not be 
incomparably worse than it is? Let the 
Legislature repeal all laws forbidding 
gambling, and let it be known that in the 
Commonwealth of Georgia there is no 
hindrance to the nefarious business but 
moral suasion, and the State would become 
the gambler's paradise. They would be 



the Liquor Traffic? 99 

almost as thick as the frogs which infested 
ancient Egypt. Louisiana made the ex- 
periment once, and the result was that 
almost every other building in the central 
part of her principal city was converted 
into a place of vice, where men and 
women, boys and girls, representing all 
classes of society, met to gamble and 
drink and debauch. 

Would you advise the people of Georgia 
to confine themselves to moral suasion in 
their endeavors to rid the State of thieves? 
Have you such faith in the transforming 
power of appeals addressed to the reason 
and conscience, that you would advise the 
repeal of all laws prohibiting theft? No, 
you would brand any man an incurable 
fool who would make a proposition so 
ineffably stupid. You know that the in- 
evitable effect of repealing these laws 
would be to make all Georgia a den of 
thieves. There would be no security for 
anything. In five years the richest man 
among you would not have enough left to 
buy a breakfast. 



100 Should the State Legalize 

In spite of all our prohibitory laws, 
some men among us will gamble, and 
others will steal ; but nobody doubts that 
if these laws were repealed, the number 
of gamblers and thieves would be pro- 
digiously increased. 

If legislation is necessary for the pro- 
tection of society against these evils, is it 
not equally necessary to protect it against 
the mightier evils of liquor drinking and 
liquor selling ? Can you by moral suasion 
alone keep men from drinking the baleful 
beverage? Some men you can. Men 
who are not cursed with an inherited pas- 
sion for it you can pursuade to let it 
alone. Men whose consciences have not 
been debauched and benumbed by vice 
may yield to an appeal to their moral 
nature. Men who have faith in God and 
his Christ, who love truth and virtue, 
who are conscious of their personal re- 
sponsibility, and who believe in the retri- 
butions of a limitless future, very readily 
submit to the force of earnest and tender 
pursuasion. 



the Liquor Traffic? 101 

But what effect has soft pursuasion upon 
the millions who are so bloated by dissi- 
pation that they are but little more than 
walking beer barrels ? What effect would 
it have upon the old tubs who linger 
at your Capitol City Club every night 
until they are filled to the brim? What 
effect would it have upon the old scabs 
who stand at the street corners and beg 
for a nickel to buy one more drink? 
What effect would it have upon the man 
who is so maddened by a thirst for liquor 
that he will steal his wife's last jewel and 
even his children's clothing, and pawn 
them for money to buy it? 

Such men are simply insensible to 
moral suasion. Your efforts upon them 
will avail nothing. You may as well at- 
tempt to pursuade the swine from the 
swill-trough, or the vultures from their 
feast of filth. 

The same is true of three-fourths of the 
men who sell liquor. Now and then by 
tender and importunate entreaty we get 



102 Should the State Legalize 

one to quit the business. But the most of 
them will respond to your kindest and 
tenderest appeals only with imprecations 
and threats of personal violence. They 
know better than we the terrible fruits 
of their iniquitous traffic. They know 
better than we that it is society's 
worst foe. They know better than we 
how it despoils home of its purity and 
peace; how it fosters speculation and fraud 
in the marts of trade; how it corrupts the 
ballot and poisons legislation ; how it 
breeds theft, robbery, riot and murder ; 
how it multiplies widows and orphans 
and fills the land with alarm, lamentation 
and death. They know it all, and yet 
they are as remorseless and fixed as fate 
in their purpose to go on with their de- 
structive work. From such men moral 
suasion will evoke no response. You 
may as well call upon the pulseless corpse 
to speak, or the cold marble to sing. Men 
so incurably selfish and conscienceless 
will respond to nothing but the stern 



the Liquor Traffic % 103 

voice of law, and the iron fist of govern- 
mental power. 

Here is another question which I wish 
the moral suasion champions to answer. 
Why do you urge us to try moral suasion 
on the liquor- seller, when you favor a 
governmental policy in reference to his 
business which neutralizes the effect of 
every appeal we make to him? When we 
tell him that he is an enemy to society, 
that his traffic is parent of four-fifths of 
the crimes committed in the State, and 
that under God's law he is a criminal and 
an outlaw, he holds up before us a State 
license to sell whisky, and says, with an air 
of triumph and self-satisfaction, "Your 
representatives in the Legislature don't 
agree with you." And so long as he holds 
that instrument, which arms him with the 
authority of the State, he does not regard 
our opinion of the character of his busi- 
ness. He assumes that the Legislature of 
the great Christian State of Georgia would 
not legalize a business which is morally 



104: Should the State Legalize 

wrong and hurtful to the interests of the 
people. What sense, what consistency, 
what honesty is there in continuing to say 
to us, "Try moral suasion," while you 
advocate a State policy which renders 
moral suasion fruitless and powerless? 

A poor, heart-broken wife, who has 
crouched a hundred times beneath the 
cruel blows of a drunken husband, goes 
to the saloon-man and entreats him not to 
sell her husband any more whisky, and 
he holds up his license and says, "Madam, 
I have paid for the privilege and you 
must not disturb me." 

The widow goes to him and says, " Sir, 
that young man is my only son, and my 
only dependence for protection and sup- 
port. Do not destroy him." And in 
reply he holds up his license and says, 
"The State gives me the privilege and 
I'll do it." 

My friends^ I have given the outlines 
of an argument against the license sys- 
tem, and in support of prohibition, which 



the Liquor Traffic? 105 

no man has ever answered, and which no 
man perhaps will ever attempt to answer. 
In their secret councils, anti-prohibition- 
ists have admitted that it is impossible 
for them to cope with us in argument. 
Their latest policy is to provoke as little 
public discussion as possible, and rely 
chiefly on the subsidizing power of money. 

Mr. William E. Johnson, who was Gen- 
eral Manager in Nebraska for the liquor 
men in their fight against prohibition, 
wrote to leading liquor dealers throughout 
the country, asking for their views as to 
the best methods of conducting a cam- 
paign in the interests of their cause. I 
have in my possession the answers which 
were made to his letters. 

Henn Goodwin, wholesale liquor dealer, 
Aberdeen, Dakota, writes: "Buying up 
newspapers is one of the best ways of 
reaching the popular mind. We tried it 
with good results." 

Peninsular Brewing Company, Detroit, 
Michigan, says : "Yours third instant re- 



106 Should the State Legalize 

ceived and contents noted. We think the 
best policy would be to spend the funds 
with the papers, influential men in poli- 
tics, lobbyists, etc." 

D. W. Shehan, wholesale liquor dealer, 
Newport, Rhode Island, writes: "The 
bulk of your money should be spent on 
newspapers. The pulpit is the hardest to 
get at. But they can be reached by a cer- 
tain class of worshippers." "They can 
be reached." If he had qualified his state- 
ment I would not controvert it. I am 
free to admit that some of them "can be 
reached." Judas was "reached" with 
thirty pieces of silver, and I have a strong 
suspicion that some in Atlanta have been 
reached in very much the same way. 
Blessed be God that for every Judas there 
are a hundred Simon Peters, men who 
cannot be "reached," men unpurchased 
and unpurchasable, whose response to 
every such proposition is, " Thy money 
perish with thee." 

They can be "reached," says the emi- 
nent campaigner, "by a certain class of 



the Liquor Traffic? 107 

worshippers. " I am very curious to know 
what sort of people constitute this class 
of worshippers. I congratulate myself 
that no such worshippers belong to the 
church which I have the honor to serve, 
because I am sure that no member of it 
has ever tried to "reach" me. 

I am confident that moral suasion could 
make no impression upon the men who 
write such letters, and commit themselves 
to methods so corrupt and infamous. I 
am just as confident that no appeal to 
reason and conscience could make any 
change for the better in the newspapers 
and pulpits that can be " reached " by such 
methods. They can be brought to repent- 
ance only through the intervention of an 
honest court and jury. 

Beloved, let all such darkness serve us 
only as a back-ground for the exhibition 
of those virtues which adorn true man- 
hood and womanhood. Let us glorify 
that grace which has kept us free from 
such filth. I would not bear the burden 



108 Should the State Legalize 

of such infamy one hour for all the money 
that the whisky shops of this country have 
made in the last fifty years. Let these 
dark ways convince us of the magnitude 
of the undertaking before us, and of the 
heroism and fortitude which we must have 
in a conflict so arduous and desperate. It 
is a long and rugged road to the sky- 
kissing summit towards which we are 
climbing. Let us press on and know no 
such word as fail. 

"Let us be heroes; let our might 
Tramp on eternal snows its way, 
And through the ebon walls of night, 
Hew down a passage unto day." 



ETHICAL FEATURES 

OF THE 

TARIFF AND LABOR QUESTIONS, 



Etljieal Features of tl?e Jariff aijd 
Cabor Qu<?stioijs. 



Delivered Before the State Agricultural Association, Macon, Georgia, 
October 25, 1890. 



i ADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I am 
*Vr not a politician. I have not the fee- 
blest aspiration for political honors. In 
the world's great work-shop I have found 
the bench for which the Architect of my 
being designed me, and believing that 
there, and only there, success is possible 
for me, it is my unalterable purpose there 
to stand and serve my day and generation 
to the utmost of my ability. 

In consenting to discuss the subject 

announced, it is not my purpose to align 

myself with any political party, but to 

consider the ethical principles involved in 

(111) 



112 Ethical Features of the 

certain political issues in a way that will 
touch the consciences of men of all parties. 

If in debating these questions I should 
reach conclusions more in harmony with 
the principles of one of the two great par- 
ties of our country, than with those of the 
other, it will be because I cannot logically 
and honestly escape such conclusions. 

One of the largest elements of Christi- 
anity is morality, and as a public teacher 
of Christianity, I should be lacking in 
fealty to its Divine Author, if in my discus- 
sions of it and my applications of it to the 
needs of men, I should ignore its morality. 

I propose to discuss certain political 
and economical questions from the stand- 
point of a teacher of Christian morals. I 
believe that the ethical principles of this 
system are binding upon all men in all 
things, and upon all combinations and 
institutions of men, at all times and under 
all circumstances. 

These principles are not imposed upon 
us by arbitrary authority. They are not 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 113 

true because they are in the Bible, but 
they are in the Bible because they are 
true. They are true independently of the 
Bible. They would be true if no Bible 
had been written. These principles are 
inherent in the Divine mind, inherent in 
the moral universe, inherent in the nature 
of things, inherent in every human con- 
science. 

I am here not as an ecclesiastic to as- 
sert things by the authority of some 
august ecclesiasticism. I am here to pro- 
claim truths that inhere in the very 
nature of things. I am here to assert 
principles that would be universally and 
everlastingly binding if they had never 
received the sanction of any religious 
authority. 

No individual, no political party, no 
government, can afford to disregard these 
principles. Every violation of them will 
be followed sooner or later by a righteous 
retribution. The party that acts upon 
the principle that what is morally wrong 



114 Ethical Features of the 

may be politically right, will as surely go 
down as that God administers his govern- 
ment over the world. The government 
that is justly chargeable with fraud and 
oppression will sooner or later dig its own 
grave. It will breed discontent, resent- 
ment, and rebellion. Goaded by a sense 
of wrong, its suffering subjects will rise 
at last, and in the fury of their despera- 
tion sweep it out of existence. 

Any political question which involves 
an ethical principle is a legitimate subject 
of discussion for me, or any other Christian 
minister, on this platform or elsewhere. 
For this reason the pulpit took hold of 
the slavery question. For this reason it 
is taking hold of the infamous Louisiana 
Lottery. For this reason it lays its hand 
upon the still more infamous liquor traffic. 
Great ethical principles are involved in 
the tariff and labor questions now agitat- 
ing this country, and it is the right and 
duty of the pulpit to come to the front, 
and in the name of God and humanity, 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 115 

protest against the adoption of any policy 
or measure which violates these principles. 

To-day the tariff question is shaking 
our government with convulsions which 
threaten its overthrow. From a thousand 
rostrums excited orators are discussing 
the subject before excited multitudes. In 
our club-houses, stores, work-shops, fac- 
tories, on our farms, and even around our 
firesides, the great debate goes on day by 
day with ever increasing intensity of 
feeling. 

The same is true of the labor problem. 
There is universal discontent about the 
imperfections of our present social system. 
The toilers of the world are engaged in 
something like a world-wide insurrection. 
Humane and virtuous men and women of 
every degree are exasperated and verging 
on open revolt against a despotism which 
is reducing human life to a mere brutal 
struggle for existence. 

If this problem is not solved, and 
quickly, there will be the most direful 



116 Ethical Features of the 

social upheaval, not only in this country 
but throughout the world, on which God's 
sun has ever shone. 

But the thought to which I would give 
the greatest emphasis is that there will be, 

THERE CAN BE NO CESSATION OF THIS DISCON- 
TENT AND STRIFE, UNTIL THESE GREAT QUES- 
TIONS ARE SETTLED UPON A STRICTLY ETHICAL 

basis. Any settlement which does injus- 
tice to any element of society, any 
settlement which is intended to build up 
one class by weakening another, any set- 
tlement which does not satisfy the en- 
lightened conscience, will not stand. 

Senator Ingalls says that "The Ten 
Commandments and the Golden Rule 
have no place in a political campaign." 
He would rule them out of every discus- 
sion of political questions, and not allow 
their influence to be felt in any political 
caucus, convention, or election. In other 
words he does not believe that moral 
principles and convictions should have 
anything to do with the adoption or rejec- 
tion of any political measure. 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 117 

My countrymen, looking backward a 
hundred years hence, the student of his- 
tory will read nothing worse than this. 
If this arch enemy of political honesty 
has voiced the sentiment of the majority 
of the American people, if they have de- 
termined, that the * ; Ten Commandments ' ' 
and the i; Golden Kule " shall have noth- 
ing to do with the governmental affairs of 
this nation, we may know that her down- 
fall is written in the book of fate. 

I trust that the magnitude and import- 
ance of the subject will be accepted by 
my audience as a sufficient apology for 
this rather lengthy introduction. 

Let us look briefly at the tariff, and see 
whether the present tariff system of our 
country is based upon ethical principles, 
and will stand the test of the t; Ten Com- 
mandments" and the " Golden Kule." 

It cannot be- denied that one of the 
absolute necessities of the government is 
revenue. Its function is to protect life, 
liberty, and property. To keep in opera- 



118 Ethical Features of the 

tion the stupendous machinery required 
for giving this protection to every subject 
of the government vast sums of money 
must be expended. It is conceded by all 
parties that the only certain or possible 
way of raising this money is to tax the 
people. It is conceded also that the 
power to levy taxes must be lodged with 
the government. The government must 
have the right and be armed with the power 
to collect from the people to whom it ex- 
tends its protection so much of their prop- 
erty or earnings as is needed for its support. 

I lay down as another fundamental 
axiom about which there can be no contro- 
versy, that the power of taxation should be 
limited by the actual necessities of the 
government. What are the actual neces- 
sities of the government ? It is a revenue 
large enough to meet the expenses incurred 
in giving adequate protection to the lives, 
liberty, and property of its subjects. 

As all are supposed to share alike the 
benefits to be derived from the govern- 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 119 

ment ; every citizen should be required 
to pay his just proportion of the necessary 
expenses of the government. But when 
he is required to pay one cent more than 
his just proportion, he is wronged, he is 
oppressed, he is robbed. 

These are the principles on which our 
American system of taxation is supposed 
to be founded. No one doubts, no one 
can doubt their ethical soundness. There 
is in every man a moral nature which 
recognizes their absolute integrity. The 
human conscience no more rebels against 
them than it does against "The Ten Com- 
mandments" and the "Golden Rule." 
Mr. Ingalls may oppose them with all his 
pyrotechnic eloquence ; in the baseness of 
his unswerving fealty to Mammon he may 
spurn them and spit upon them, but if he 
has any conscience left, and is not utterly 
dehumanized, he knows them to be true 
and just. 

Just so far as our government has de- 
parted from these great principles, it has 



120 Ethical Features of the 

departed from truth and , justice and 
equity. Every violation of them is a 
violation of the rights of man. Trample 
them in the dust and our boasted freedom 
is a sham. It is folly to speak of it for 
it does not exist. To determine how 
great our peril is, to know how near we 
are to destruction, we have only to ascer- 
tain how far we have drifted from these 
ancient landmarks. 

We all admit that the government must 
have a revenue, and that the revenue 
should be sufficient to meet all the legiti- 
mate expenses of the government. We 
admit that the only certain way of raising 
such a revenue is by taxation, and that 
every man whose life, liberty, and property 
are protected by the government should 
bear his just proportion of the taxation. 

But, by what method of taxation ought 
the government to raise its revenue % (Of 
course you understand that I am limiting 
this discussion to the subject of taxation 
by the Federal Government.) What is 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 121 

the fairest and most equitable method of 
taxation for governmental purposes? 
Here is room for an honest difference of 
opinion. Here the purest and wisest of 
our statesmen have been divided. If it 
were an original question with our coun- 
try ; if the government were yet in its 
formative state, and its method of raising 
a revenue had to be determined by the 
suffrages of the people, I would, without 
hesitation and without a doubt, cast my 
vote for direct taxation and absolute free 
trade. I am confident that this method 
of taxation, for governmental purposes, 
has a surer ethical basis than any other. 

The system of taxation adopted by our 
Federal Government is a mixed one. 
The greater part of its revenue is raised 
by means of a tariff — the imposition of 
imposts upon imports. 

Let us admit for the sake of argument 
that this is a just mode of taxation, that 
it is susceptible of defense upon purely 
ethical grounds. But whether you tax 



122 Ethical Features of the 

the people directly, or by means of a 
tariff, the money raised by such taxation 
cannot be justly and honestly used for 
any other purpose than paying the neces- 
sary expenses of the government. To 
appropriate one dollar to any other pur- 
pose is a palpable violation of the princi- 
ples upon which our system of taxation 
is supposed to rest. And if the paying 
of its necessary expenses is the only 
legitimate and rightful use that the gov- 
ernment can make of its revenue, it 
follows that the government cannot, in 
justice to the people, collect more revenue 
from them, whether by tariff or otherwise, 
than is needed to meet its necessary ex- 
penses in giving protection to life, liberty, 
and property. How much does it cost 
the government of the United States to 
protect the lives, liberty, and property of 
its subjects? What is the sum of money 
needed to meet the expenses of its various 
departments? I do not know the exact 
amount, but suppose it to be two hundred 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 123 

million dollars. Then just that sum and 
no more it has the right to collect from 
the people. Every dollar taken from the 
people beyond that amount is money to 
which the government has no right, and 
in taking it from the people it is guilty of 
oppression and robbery. 

The government was made for the peo- 
ple and not the people for the government, 
and when the government converts itself 
into a despotism, and lends itself to a 
combination of men for the purposes of 
oppression and plunder, the people are 
stupid and contemptible if they submit. 
To take more revenue from the people 
than is needed to meet the expenses of 
the government, is an unmitigated wrong 
which they have the right to resist with all 
the might with which God has endowed 
them. That such oppression exists to-day 
in this so-called "land of the free," no 
honest man in his right mind will deny. 
How long will the people endure it I I 
cannot tell, but if I do not misread the 



124 Ethical Features of the 

signs of the times, not another decade 
will have passed before the wronged and 
suffering millions of this land will rise in 
their indignation and wrath and throttle 
the oppressor. 

If a tariff for revenue be a necessity, 
then the incidental protection which it 
gives to American industries is not wrong. 
If American manufacturers and producers 
would content themselves with this sort 
of protection, no voice of protest or of 
complaint would be heard, and the tariff 
controversy would sleep in a grave as 
deep as that in which slavery and secession 
are buried. 

But they are not content. Inspired by 
a remorseless greed of gain, and spurn- 
ing the idea of respecting the rights of 
other men, they tell us that the old con- 
ception of a tariff for incidental protection 
is dead, and that the new conception of 
tariff for protection with incidental rev- 
enue has come to take its place. 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 125 

But the old conception is not dead. 
It throbs in the brain and burns in the 
hearts of millions of honest and liberty- 
loving men in our land. They may 
as well tell us that the decalogue is 
dead, that Christ's sermon on the mount 
is dead, that moral government is dead. 
that all human sensibilty to truth and 
justice and honor are dead. What is 
morally right and commends itself to the 
enlightened conscience is immortal. Man 
can no more exterminate it than he can 
quench the burning fountains of the sun. 

Tariff primarily for protection is gov- 
ernmental robbery. It repudiates our 
most innate conception of common 
honesty. It commits the government to 
a principle of action to be found in no 
system of ethics known to man. a princi- 
ple which even Hottentots and Kaffirs 
would disown. Such a tariff is based 
upon the principle that the government 
has a right to take from one man a part 
of his earnings and give it to another 



126 Ethical Features of the 

man. The protective tariff does take a 
large share of the earnings of one class 
and bestow it as a free gift upon another 
class. What is that? Justice? Equity? 
No. As long as there is such a thing as 
moral law, it can never be anything but 
robbery. 

Here is a suit of clothes. It cost no 
more to manufacture it in this country 
than it would have cost in England. I 
could have bought it in England for 
$25.00. I bought it in America for 
$50.00. What made this enormous dif- 
ference ? The protective tariff. Who 
gets this profit of one hundred per cent ? 
The American manufacturer. Who pays 
it? I. How does he get it? The gov- 
ernment takes it out of my pocket and 
puts it into his. What do I receive from 
the manufacturers and the government as 
a compensation for this loss ? Nothing — 
absolutely nothing. Is this justice ? Is 
it equity? Is it honesty? Where is the 
ethical basis for such a transaction ? 



Taeiff and Labor Questions. 127 

Where is the man on God's footstool who 
will undertake to defend it on moral 
grounds ? Mr. Ingalls, having repudiated 
the ' ' Ten Commandments ' ' and ' ' The 
Golden Rule, " would support it, but not 
upon any principle of action which an 
honest man can respect. 

Protection, like slavery, is an inheri- 
tance. It came down to us from mon- 
archial and aristocratic Europe by way of 
New England. It had its origin in the 
supposed divine right of kings, and the 
supposed right of government to create 
class distinctions. It had its genesis in a 
conception as old as despotism, that the 
prosperity of a country is based on 
inequalities made by law, and on distinc- 
tions created by legislation. 

Is this right? Is it just? Does it 
harmonize with the "Ten Command- 
ments " and " The Golden Kule ? ' ' What 
right has government to say to one class 
of its subjects, "You shall be rich," and 
to another class, "You shall be poor? " 



128 Ethical Features of the 

What right has it to determine what my 
social standing shall be ? If I choose to 
be poor, or to occupy an inferior social 
position, I have no cause of complaint. 
But when the government, instituted for 
my protection, and for whose support I 
am taxed, lays its heavy hand upon me 
and compels me to be poor and humble 
and obscure, I deserve all the indignity 
and outrage which it heaps upon me, if I 
do not protest and combine with other 
men to stamp out the injustice. 

What is known as the McKinley bill, 
and which has become a law, is a speci- 
men of unmitigated and unadulterated 
class legislation. There is nothing worse 
in all the history of feudalism. Its pur- 
poses are as distinct and unmistakable as 
the sun in heaven, when there is not a 
cloud to obscure its face. It was framed 
for the definite purpose of making broader 
and stronger the class distinctions already 
created by kindred measures. The inevi- 
table effect of the McKinley bill will be 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 129 

to make the rich richer, and the poor 
poorer. It is a golden girdle for the 
millionaire but a hangman's rope for the 
man whose brow is beaded with the sweat 
of honest toil. 

It was claimed by the old advocates of 
protection that it was only a temporary 
measure, a burden which consumers would 
have to bear only for a few years. They 
declared that just so soon as our infant 
industries had gathered strength, and 
could stand without governmental sup- 
port, protection would cease. The eco- 
nomic millennium to which such tariff 
advocates as Clay and Hamilton looked for- 
ward with ecstatic delight, was absolute free 
trade, American vessels dotting every sea, 
and untrammeled commerce with all the 
nations of the world, and they advocated 
a tariff only because they believed it 
would hasten the realization of their dream. 

But with no such expectation and with 
no such object in view, did Mr. McKinley 
and his political bed-fellows urge the 



130 Ethical Features of the 

passage of this bill. Free trade is not 
the ultimatum for which they are wishing 
and working. They do not want it ; they 
would not have it. Before their prophetic 
ken there rises no such vision, and they 
do not reckon it among the possibilities 
of the future. 

What they desire, what they are schem- 
ing for, and what they are determined to 
have, if they can keep themselves in 
power, is not free trade — unfettered com- 
merce with the world — but a country 
isolated from all other nations by the 
erection of impassable barriers to the in- 
troduction of foreign imports. 

If it were possible for these men, the 
hirelings of godless monopolies, the paid 
henchmen of monied despots, to accom- 
plish their iniquitous purposes, and fasten 
this accursed burden of protection, not 
only upon us for the rest of our mortal 
lives, but upon our children and our 
children's children, I should contemplate 
the future of my country with a feeling 
akin to despair. 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 131 

But, I do not believe that these men 
will be permitted to realize their dream of 
continued power and plunder. The great 
American people will not join the Kansas 
apostate in discarding the "Ten Com- 
mandments" and the "Golden Kule." 
They still believe in God and moral gov- 
ernment, and the everlasting distinctions 
between right and wrong. They have 
not banished the spirit of freedom from 
their breasts, and recorded a vow of meek 
and unprotesting submission to those who 
aspire to be their lords and masters. 
and, bye-and-bye, when their vision is 
clearer, their judgment less beclouded by 
the wizardry of designing demagogues, 
and they see how they have been wronged 
and robbed, and the still greater wrongs 
and robberies with which they are threat- 
ened, they will rise in their might and say 
to Ingalls, McKinley, Keed, and their 
fellow-conspirators: "Down and out. 
This temple was reared to freedom and 
justice, but ye have made it a den of 
thieves." 



132 Ethical Features of the 

I must now leave this division of my 
subject and take up the labor question. 
By the labor question I mean simply the 
rights of labor. 

What are the rights of labor 1 I do 
not ask what are its rights under the laws 
of the State. The employer who does no 
more for his employes than the State 
requires and compels him to do, deserves 
to be treated as a heathen and a publican. 
He may leave no part of his contract un- 
fulfilled and still be a thief and a robber. 

What are the rights of labor under 
moral law? Under the "Ten Command- 
ment" and the "Golden Kule?" That 
is the labor question which I am here to 
discuss. That is the real problem which 
has to be solved before there can be any 
lasting peace between capital and labor. 
Any attempt to settle upon any other than 
an ethical basis will only aggravate the 
trouble and remove further into the future 
the end which we so fervently desire to 
reach. 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 133 

What are the rights of labor ? They 
are not what thousands of laborers claim 
to be their rights. There are multitudes 
of working-men as destitute of the true 
ethical spirit as the most selfish and mer- 
ciless capitalist to be found in the land. 
They claim that they are the only pro- 
ducers of wealth, and hence that all the 
wealth of the community belongs to them. 
Capital, with all its selfishness and des- 
potism has never gone quite so far as that. 

How unreasonable and absurd this claim. 
I hire a man to plant and cultivate my 
vegetable garden. I pay him a just com- 
pensation for his services. But when the 
crop has matured and I go into the garden 
and begin to pluck the beans and peas and 
tomatoes, the gardener comes at me with 
a club and says, ' ' These are my vegeta- 
bles, sir. They are the products of my 
labor and of mine only, and if you don't 
get out I'll brain you." 

Well, that gardener's claim is not more 
unreasonable and unjust than the one 



134 Ethical Features of the 

which is made by thousands of the work- 
ingmen of our day. Some of them say 
that all the railroads of the country be- 
long to them, because they built them, or 
that all the goods manufactured in the 
land are their rightful property because 
they are the products of their toil. 

In most cases there are three factors in 
a business enterprise : First, the labor ; 
second, the direction and superintendence 
of the labor ; and third, the capital which 
provides the materials on which labor ex- 
pends itself, and the machinery or tools 
with which it works. 

Now, all these factors may be united in 
the same hands. The laborers in a factory 
may be the owners of it ; that is, they 
may have put in all the capital with which 
it is operated, and with which its build- 
ings, material, and machinery were bought, 
and they may have sufficient intelligence 
to superintend their own work. In such 
a case only do the laborers have the right 
to claim all the products and profits of 
the business. 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 135 

But usually a business enterprise rep- 
resents the three factors which I have 
named — the workmen, the superinten- 
dent, and the capitalist. And in as much 
as it is a partnership in which each partner 
contributes his share to the enterprise, 
each partner is entitled to a share of the 
profits of the business. It is preposter- 
ous in the last degree for the workmen, 
or the superintendent, or the capitalist, 
to claim all of the profits. Such a claim 
can have no moral basis. ' It does violence 
to every sentiment of right. Every man 
instinctively knows it to be wrong. 

The legitimate demand of labor is that 
it shall have a fair share of what it helps to 
produce. This is all that the laborer has 
a right to claim. This is all that God's 
moral law and the enlightened human 
conscience will accord to him. To de- 
mand more than this is downright dis- 
honesty, which deserves all the reproba- 
tion that virtue-loving men can heap 
upon it. 



136 Ethical Features of the 

But does labor in our day and genera- 
tion get a fair share of what it helps to 
produce ? I am prepared to say, and 
without the least fear of successful contra- 
diction, that in a majority of cases it does 
not. I dare to affirm in this presence 
and elsewhere, that more than one-half 
of the labor of this country is robbed of 
its rights. 

What determines the rate of wages for 
a laborer in our day and land ? The value 
of his labor to his employer ? This should 
determine it, but it does not. He ought 
to be paid in proportion to the value of 
his services, but he is not. 

A few weeks ago I went into a fancy 
hardware factory in Florence, Alabama, 
and found workmen who were paid eight 
dollars per day for their services. I 
asked the superintendent why he paid 
these men such high wages when work- 
men in other departments of his factory 
received only three dollars per day. He 
replied that it was not because their ser- 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 137 

vices were more valuable than those of 
men in other departments of the business, 
but because there were so few men in the 
country who could do the particular work 
in which they were engaged. It was not 
then the value of the work which deter- 
mined their wages, but the scarcity of the 
skill required for that kind of work. 

What labor is more skilled and . more 
valuable than that performed by a well- 
trained and well-equipped school-teacher ? 
Who among you can estimate the worth 
of such a teacher to your child in the 
discipline and development of his mind, 
in fitting him to grapple successfully with 
the problems which will confront him in 
life's pathway? Such a teacher is worthy 
of our highest regard, and should receive 
a pecuniary reward in proportion to the 
value of his labor. But what does he get 
in the way of material compensation ? 
Oh, shame, where is thy blush ? In many 
places his wages do not exceed those of 
the hod-carrier or the street-scavenger. 



138 Ethical Features of the 

What determines the rate of his com- 
pensation ? Not the value of the work 
which he is engaged to perform, but the 
law of supply and demand. There are so 
many men competent and wanting to do 
the same work that he must take it for 
less than any one of a hundred bidders is 
willing to do it, or not get it at all. 

Now, I protest that the wages of a 
laborer should not be determined by the 
law of supply and demand. The princi- 
ple is unchristian, unjust and cruel. To 
pay a laborer whose labor is worth to you 
six dollars per day only fifty cents because 
there are a hundred men in the community 
who are willing to do it for that pitiful 
sum, is simply to take advantage of his 
dire necessity and rob him of the just re- 
ward of his labor. The money that a 
man makes by a business conducted upon 
that principle is treasure which he cannot 
hold without debauching his conscience 
and defying the justice of God. 

But I am asked, u Do you buy your 



Taeut am) Lab on Questions. 139 

hats and boots at their market value?" 
I answer, yes. "Do yon buy your w : 
and eoal at their market value I " Yes. 
••Do yon bny yonr fish and poultry and 
bacon at their market vainer* Yes. 
••Do yon buy yonr horses and cows at 
their market value ! " I do. •• And is 
their market price determined by the law 
of supply and demand i" It is. •• Then 
why not let the same law regulate the 
price of human labor I " 

Because in God's eye and under God's 
government man is infinitely higher. 
nobler, and diviner than raiment or fuel, 
or fish, or fowl, or beast. 

In the name of that Holy Being who 
made us in His image, and but little lower 
than the angels, in the name of that be- 
nignant Redeemer, who. though he thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God. 
stooped to clothe himself in our humanity, 
that he might save it and lift it to the 
skies. I protest against the injustice and 
the ineffable profanity and crime of put- 



140 Ethical Features of the 

ting man on the market as you would the 
products of your farm or factory, and de- 
termining the price of his brawn and 
blood and brain by the law of supply and 
demand. 

It would be madness and folly in me to 
say how much any class of laborers should 
be paid in dollars and cents. The pur- 
chasing power of money varies, and one 
dollar may be worth more this year than 
two dollars will be worth in the same 
market next year. 

But there are a few general principles by 
which both workman and employer may 
determine, at any time, and in any coun- 
try, what constitutes a fair return for 
labor. I will name some of these princi- 
ples and challenge any man in the wide 
world to dispute their moral integrity. 

1. The laborer should have enough to 
meet his actual physical wants — enough 
to provide himself with such clothing and 
food as are necessary to make him com- 
fortable and preserve his health and 



Taeiff and Labor Questions. 141 

strength. Will any one deny the sound- 
ness of that proposition? 

That much you allow the dumb brutes 
that serve you. The beast which draws 
your wagon or plow is given a comforta- 
ble shelter, and an ample supply of food 
when his day's work is done. Is the 
human laborer, your brother man, who 
serves you faithfully on the farm or in 
the factory, worthy of less ? Does he 
not deserve a decent shelter, a good bed, 
warm clothing and an adequate supply of 
nourishing food ? Where is the man who 
will face us and dare to say that this is 
asking too much for the laborer? You 
cannot find him. If such a human wretch 
should show himself we would load him 
with infamy. But pause and reflect for a 
moment. Do all faithful and honest 
workmen receive this reward? Do they? 
Have America's toiling millions what they 
need for their physical comfort and 
health ? Have they ? If you are not 
prepared to answer the question, I will 



142 Ethical Features of the 

answer it for you. NO ! No ! a thousand 
times no ! 

I can find you men and women working 
ten hours a day in American manufactur- 
ies, who have less comforts than the 
beasts of burden around them. I have 
seen three or four families of them 
crowded into one 16x16 room. In that 
one little room they all cook and sleep 
and eat. They are half-clothed, half -fed, 
haggard and howling with discontent. I 
will find you thousands of families in this 
condition for the reason that the scanty 
wages which they receive will not allow 
them to do better for themselves. I will 
find all this want and squalid wretched- 
ness among laborers whose work yields a 
large profit to the capitalist, and whose 
employers live in luxury and splendor. 

Look at that picture and tell me if it is 
not worthy of your attention and sym- 
pathy. We are not lacking in societies 
for the prevention of cruelty to animals, 
but who will join a society to prevent such 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 143 

inhumanity to man ? Why don't the 
humanity-loving millions of this nation 
rise up and say, "This brutality must 
cease ? " 

2. The compensation of the laborer 
should be large enough to enable him to 
maintain a family. It. is the birth right 
of every virtuous man to have a wife, and 
of every virtuous woman to have a hus- 
band. Any economic or social system 
which destroys or restricts this right, is 
an iniquity which deserves to be blotted 
out, and a government which will not 
guarantee this right to its subjects is a 
failure, and unworthy of support, A 
condition of things in any country which 
forbids a large element of its population 
to marry, must sooner or later be followed 
by a reign of crime and anarchy. Every 
man who is denied this sacred right is a 
malcontent, a breeder of social disturbance 
and rebellion against "the powers that 
be." Goaded by a deep sense of poverty 
and social inferiority fastened upon him 



144 Ethical Features of the 

by selfish and unfeeling men, and cog- 
nizant of the fact that government lends 
its support to his oppressors, he is ripe 
for mischief, ready to join any red-ban- 
nered and red-handed revolution, that will 
spread alarm, lamentation, conflagration, 
ruin and devastation over the land. 

How many people are there in this 
country who are robbed of the right of 
marriage by being robbed of the just re- 
ward of their labors ? There are millions 
of them, and if this despotism of capital 
continues, in another decade there will be 
millions more. What security is there 
for any nation that is menaced by the 
discontent and indignation of so large an 
element of its population ? 

3. The working-man should have such 
a compensation for his labor as will en- 
able him to keep his children in school 
until they have received at least the rudi- 
ments of an education. 

If it is his right to have a family, it is 
right to receive such a reward of his labor 



Takiff and Labor Questions. 145 

as will enable him to supply its actual 
wants. What are the actual wants of any 
man's child I Are they limited to shelter, 
food, and clothing { If the child were 
only an animal they would be. But he is 
more than an animal and has something 
more than a material body to be cared 
for. He has a mind and the necessities 
of that mind are just as real as those of 
the body. It needs food, knowledge, 
training, development. If these needs 
are not supplied there will be but little to 
differentiate that man's child from his 
brute. 

Any economic or social system which 
compels a human being to grow up in the 
darkness of ignorance, is a disgrace to 
any country, a crime against humanity, 
and a stench in the nostrils of the 
Almighty. 

4. Lastly, the working-man should re- 
ceive such a reward of his labor as will 
enable him, with reasonable economy, to 
lay up something for his support in old 

age. 

10 



146 Ethical Featukes of the 

Every true man's heart is touched by 
the natural infirmities and sorrows of an 
old man. The hoary locks, the unsteady 
step, the palsied hand, the dim eyes, and 
tremulous voice, plead for our tenderest 
sympathy. But how much deeper should 
be our commiseration when to these are 
added the woes of abject poverty. 

Now, I say that any industrial or social 
system which dooms any class of people 
to the humiliation and wretchedness of 
extreme poverty in their old age, deserves 
all the reprobation that virtuous men and 
a holy God can visit upon it. 

In every city of this land you may find 
an army of aged and helpless paupers, 
whose poverty is not traceable to idleness 
nor to dissipation, but to the selfish and 
unrighteous treatment of the men whom 
they have enriched by their faithful and 
life long toils. 

You will admit that these are the rights 
of labor. But will you help to enforce 
them? Too many are ready to say, 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 147 

"Your theory is true and right, but it 
cannot be put into practice, and therefore 
it is a waste of time to discuss it." We 
are constantly tempted to settle down to' 
the idea that as things are and have been, 
so they must continue to be. It requires 
a good degree of heroism to hold fast to 
an ideal in the face of seemingly insuper- 
able difficulties. But that is what we 
must do if we would not abandon the 
world to remediless ruin. If we think 
things cannot be different from what they 
are, we but add so much to the dead 
inertia of the world which keeps things 
as they are. But if we hold to our ideal 
and refuse to succumb, we make ourselves 
part of the forces which will bye and bye 
change things for the better. 

Let us keep up our faith. Let us hold 
on to our discontent, nurse it, fan it into 
a mighty flame, and spread it throughout 
the land. 

Something can be done. We can make 
things different from what they are and 
have been. 



148 Ethical Features of the 

You agree with me as to the rights of 
labor. What can be done in helping to 
secure these rights ? Three things we can 
do. 

1. We can, on every appropriate occa- 
sion, firmly and solemnly assert these 
rights. To be silent is virtually to con- 
sent to the wrongs and miseries that are 
inflicted every day upon the sons and 
daughters of toil. Dare to speak out 
what you believe and feel, and it will 
keep alive the public conscience, and 
make the oppressor pause and think. 

2. We can set an example of fair deal- 
ing. If we employ labor, let us in the 
most practical way show our respect for 
its rights. Let us demonstrate the truth 
that a man can deal justly with his em- 
ployes and still live and prosper. Let 
us establish a real brotherhood with all 
who are in our service. Let us run the 
race, not against them but with them. 
Let us treat them as co-workers and part- 
ners. Make them feel that our business 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 149 

is their business, and that whatever they 
do to increase the prosperity of the busi- 
ness will be duly recognized and rewarded. 

3. Lastly, we can demand the interpo- 
sition of government for the protection of 
the rights of labor. The government is 
the creature of the people, and is supposed 
to be responsive to the will of the people. 
Let all fair-minded and humanity-loving 
men who employ labor, join these op- 
pressed millions in saying to our law- 
makers, "Put the iron fist of governmen- 
tal power upon the tyrants and stop their 
oppressions." 

I have no sympathy whatever with Ed- 
ward Bellamy's extreme paternalism. I 
admire the truly philanthropic spirit 
which inspired his dream. I am almost 
bewitched by his picture of that ideal 
time when men shall be wholly freed 
from care for the morrow, and left with 
no more concern for their livelihood than 
the trees which are watered by the unfail- 
ing streams ; but that this state of things 



150 Ethical Features of the 

can be brought about by making the gov- 
ernment the only property-holder and em- 
ployer of labor, is too absurd to be worthy 
of our serious thought. 

All that government can do and ought 
to do, is to protect and enforce the rights 
of labor. Let it step in with its authority 
between capital and labor, and see that 
each gets its fair and just proportion of 
the profits of business. Let it abolish its 
iniquitous protective tariff, which enlarges 
the wealth of the rich by increasing the 
poverty of the poor. Let its corrupt sys- 
tem of bounties and subsidies case. Let 
its enormous and excessive taxation be 
reduced. Let its functions be limited, 
as they were intended by its founders to 
be, to the protection of life, liberty and 
property, and these problems which now 
vex and alarm us, will cease to exist. 
Capital will be secure and remunerative ; 
labor will be prosperous, honored, con- 
tented and happy ; the brightest dreams of 
our fathers will be realized, God will 



Tariff and Labor Questions. 151 

smile, angels sing, and men rejoice over 
a land where truth, justice, freedom and 
equality are sacred and inviolate. 



.It 



